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17/01/2011
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Platooning may be the new way of trunking within 10 years, with the EU-financed SARTRE project having completed its first demonstration at the Volvo Proving Ground, close to Gothenburg, Sweden.
 Vehicle platooning – in which a professional driver in a lead vehicle effectively drives a line of other vehicles, with each vehicle measuring distance, speed and direction and adjusting to the vehicle in front – is widely believed to offer safety and efficiency advantages.
In the tests, the steering wheel of a single following car moved by itself as the vehicle smoothly followed the lead truck around the country road test track.
The Volvo test was the first for the SARTRE teams outside the simulators. "We are very pleased to see that the various systems work so well together the first time," comments Eric Coelingh, engineering specialist at Volvo Cars.
"The systems come from seven SARTRE-member companies in four countries. The winter weather provided some extra testing of cameras and communication equipment," he adds.
"This is a major milestone for this important European research programme," states Tom Robinson, SARTRE project coordinator, of Ricardo UK.
"With the combined skills of its participating companies, SARTRE is making tangible progress towards the realisation of safe and effective road train technology," he says.
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Author
Brian Tinham
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