Stable and Fair Benefit Allocation in Mixed-Energy Truck Platooning: A Coalitional Game Approach

This paper addresses the benefit allocation in a mixed-energy truck platoon composed of fuel-powered and electric trucks. The interactions among trucks during platoon formation are modeled as a coalitional game with transferable utility. We first design a stable payoff allocation scheme that accounts for truck heterogeneity in energy savings and platoon roles (leader or follower), establishing core-stability conditions to ensure that no subset of trucks has an incentive to deviate for greater benefit. To enhance payoff fairness, we then propose a closed-form, Shapley value-based allocation approach that is computationally efficient and independent of the platoon size. Sufficient conditions under which the allocation is both fair and core-stable are provided. In scenarios where the Shapley value falls outside the core, we develop an alternative allocation based on the stable payoff that minimizes the mean relative deviation from the Shapley value while preserving core stability. This deviation is further proved to be upper-bounded by $1$, showing a favorable trade-off between stability and fairness. Finally, extensive numerical studies validate the theoretical results and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in facilitating stable, equitable, and sustainable cooperation in mixed-energy truck platooning.