ZERO-HEADWAY BRIDGING DAMPERS FOR FAULT TOLERANT CO-OPERATIVE HIGHWAYS.

Co-operative Vehicle Highway Systems (CVHS) are under development to address congestion, inefficient energy use and inadequate safety margins. As more intelligence is applied to highway and vehicles, the system increasingly relies on secure communications and control, with potentially hazardous consequences in the event of technical failure. The authors propose an active, intelligently controlled extended fender which permits vehicles to operate in lengthy, stable platoons in direct but 'soft' contact, allowing fault-tolerance of a CVHS. Simulation studies have indicated that stable operation may be retained with only a simple 'leader' broadcast signal and that good longitudinal ride quality is also retained. For the covering abstract see ITRD E134653.