Exploring the Impact of Data Uncertainties in Autonomous Ground Vehicle Platooning

To improve robustness of autonomous vehicles, deployments have evolved from a single intelligent system to a combination of several within a platoon. Platooning vehicles move together as a unit, communicating with each other to navigate the changing environment safely. While the technology is robust, there is a large dependence on data collection and communication. Issues with sensors or communication systems can cause significant problems for t he s ystem. There a re several uncertainties that impact a system's fidelity. Small errors in data accuracy can lead to system failure under certain circumstances. We define s tale d ata a s a p erturbation w ithin a s ystem that causes it to repetitively rely on old data from external data sources (e.g. other cars in the platoon). This paper conducts a fault injection campaign to analyze the impact of stale data in a platooning model, where stale data occurs in the car's communication and/or perception system. The fault injection campaign accounts for different occurrences of a communication error. Our analysis provides an understanding of the sensitivity of each model parameter in causing system failures (e.g. a crash between vehicles within the platooning model). By understanding which parameters are most influential to the fidelity of the model, we enable the ability to make platooning algorithms safer.