  Freight transportation is of outmost importance for our society and is
continuously increasing. At the same time, transporting goods on roads accounts
for about 26% of all energy consumption and 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions
in the European Union. Despite the influence the transportation system has on
our energy consumption and the environment, road transportation is mainly done
by individual long-haulage trucks with no real-time coordination or global
optimization. In this paper, we review how modern information and communication
technology supports a cyber-physical transportation system architecture with an
integrated logistic system coordinating fleets of trucks traveling together in
vehicle platoons. From the reduced air drag, platooning trucks traveling close
together can save about 10% of their fuel consumption. Utilizing road grade
information and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, a safe and fuel-optimized
cooperative look-ahead control strategy is implemented on top of the existing
cruise controller. By optimizing the interaction between vehicles and platoons
of vehicles, it is shown that significant improvements can be achieved. An
integrated transport planning and vehicle routing in the fleet management
system allows both small and large fleet owners to benefit from the
collaboration. A realistic case study with 200 heavy-duty vehicles performing
transportation tasks in Sweden is described. Simulations show overall fuel
savings at more than 5% thanks to coordinated platoon planning. It is also
illustrated how well the proposed cooperative look-ahead controller for
heavy-duty vehicle platoons manages to optimize the velocity profiles of the
vehicles over a hilly segment of the considered road network.
