A platooning control apparatus that realizes platooning of a plurality of vehicles by causing an own vehicle to follow other vehicle. The platooning control apparatus includes a follow control unit that controls acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle by using forward information of the own vehicle and other vehicle information obtained through vehicle-to-vehicle communication, a first acquisition unit that obtains first slope information indicating a gradient of a road surface on which a leading vehicle of the platooning is traveling, a determination unit that determines based on the first slope information whether or not to inhibit acceleration/deceleration control to be performed by the follow control unit when the leading vehicle is accelerating or decelerating, and a suppression control unit that inhibits the acceleration/deceleration control to be performed by the follow control unit when the acceleration/deceleration control is determined to be inhibited.

A vehicle control system includes a receiving unit to receive movement information of a plurality of forward vehicles on a road on which a subject vehicle is driven through V2X communication; a sensor to sense a specific forward vehicle, from among the plurality of forward vehicles, that is driven ahead of the subject vehicle; and a control unit to calculate a driving path for the subject vehicle based on the movement information of the plurality of forward vehicles received by the receiving unit and to control driving of the subject vehicle to follow the driving path or the specific forward vehicle.

The present invention relates to systems and methods for vehicles to closely follow one another safely through partial automation. Following closely behind another vehicle has significant fuel savings benefits, but is unsafe when done manually by the driver. On the opposite end of the spectrum, fully autonomous solutions require inordinate amounts of technology, and a level of robustness that is currently not cost effective.

Methods and systems for a remote transportation system including a first autonomous vehicle, at least one second autonomous vehicle and a remote transportation server are provided. The server includes non-transitory computer readable media and one or more processors configured by programming instructions on the non-transitory computer readable media to: receive a request for tow service from the first vehicle, wherein the request includes a location of the first autonomous vehicle; identify a towing destination for the first autonomous vehicle based on the location of the first autonomous vehicle; perform an initial fault diagnosis to determine a towing type; confirm the towing type with the first autonomous vehicle to be at least one of a ground tow, an aerial tow, and a sensor kit tow; and coordinate towing of the first autonomous vehicle to the towing destination by the at least one second autonomous vehicle based on the towing type.

Methods and systems for communicating between autonomous vehicles are described herein. Such communication may be performed for signaling, collision avoidance, path coordination, and/or autonomous control. A computing device may receive data for the same road segment from autonomous vehicles, including (i) an indication of a location within the road segment, and (ii) an indication of a condition of the road segment. The computing device may generate, from the data for the same road segment, an overall indication of the condition of the road segment, which may include a recommendation to vehicles approaching the road segment. Additionally, the computing device may receive a request from a computing device within a vehicle approaching the road segment to display vehicle data. The overall indication for the road segment may then be displayed on a user interface of the computing device.

A driving system includes a central controller, a plurality of driving paths forming a least crossing position, and a plurality of autonomous driving devices configured to drive along at least one of the driving paths through the crossing position. The central controller is configured to determine a plurality of target driving devices from among the autonomous driving devices that are within a certain range of the crossing position, designate one of the target driving devices as a master driving device and the other of the target driving device as slave driving devices. The master driving device controls passage of the slave driving devices through the crossing position.

A control system includes a controller configured to determine a target speed between a first target position of a haul vehicle relative to a harvester and a second target position of the haul vehicle relative to the harvester based on a flow rate of agricultural product through a conveyor of the harvester. The haul vehicle is coupled to a storage compartment, an outlet of the conveyor is aligned with a first unloading point within the storage compartment while the haul vehicle is positioned at the first target position, and the outlet of the conveyor is aligned with a second unloading point within the storage compartment while the haul vehicle is positioned at the second target position. Furthermore, the controller is configured to output a control signal indicative of instructions to direct the haul vehicle from the first target position to the second target position at the target speed.

Dynamic braking capability of a combination vehicle including a tractor and at least one trailer is provided based on a distribution of the load carried by the combination vehicle. Load distribution is determined directly using load sensors disposed at wheel pairs of the tractor and trailer(s) or indirectly by using a load sensor located at the drive axle of the tractor together with engine torque and vehicle speed signals for determining gross vehicle mass. A database having sub-databases therein each storing stopping distance calculation results for a corresponding combination vehicle type e.g. 5-axle single or 8-axle double, is indexed by using the determined load distributions for providing the dynamic braking capability based on the vehicle type and its load distribution. The database may also be indexed using Axle Load Allocation Factor that is calculated based on a mathematical combination of drive, steering, and gross trailer axle loading.

Proposed is a device for controlling platooning, the device including a processor that detects a travel environment state for the platooning, detects weights or loading rates of vehicles to be participating in the platooning, determines an arrangement order of a line of the vehicles of the platooning based on the detected travel environment state and the detected weights or loading rates, and sets a vehicle spacing of the platooning based on the arrangement order, and a communication device for transmitting information on the arrangement order and the vehicle spacing.

An agricultural harvesting machine includes a harvested crop repository having a fill capacity, a crop processing system configured to engage crop in a field, perform a crop processing operation on the crop, and move the processed crop to the harvested crop repository, a fill level sensor configured to generate a fill level signal indicative of a current fill level of the harvested crop repository, and a control system configured to obtain a machine path definition that represents a machine path for the agricultural harvesting machine, wherein the machine path definition defines a turn pattern and a land size of a land in the field, identify a rendezvous point in the field for the agricultural harvesting machine and a haulage vehicle based on the machine path definition, and generate a control signal based on the rendezvous point.