Vehicle Platoons Through Ring Coupling

Abstract

Abstract-In this paper, a novel strategy for the control of a string of vehicles is designed. The vehicles are coupled in a unidirectional ring at the interaction level: each vehicle is influenced by the position of its immediate forward neighbor; the first vehicle in the platoon is influenced by the position of the last vehicle. Through these interactions a cooperative behavior emerges and a platoon of vehicles moving at a constant velocity with constant inter-vehicle spacings is formed. This contrasts with more traditional control schemes where an independent leader vehicle is followed by the remaining vehicles.For this control structure, stability properties are established. The concept of string stability of a platoon is discussed and applied to the ring interconnection. Design rules are presented, showing how an appropriate choice of parameter values leads to a constant spacing or constant time headway policy. Furthermore, the scheme has a characteristic property: it maintains the platoon structure when subject to malfunctioning vehicles.

The Mathematics of Networks of Linear Systems

“…Here the interesting task is not so much to control the temperature distribution in the oven but rather to create an average temperature profile that yields the desired result. The same issue arises in motion control problems for infinite platoons of vehicles, as in the work by Rogge and Aeyels (2008), or for spatiotemporal systems described by partial differential equations (PDEs), on which see Bamieh, Paganini and Dahleh (2002). Using Fourier-transform techniques, spatially invariant control systems can be identified with parameter-dependent families of linear systems.…”

String Instability in Classes of Linear Time Invariant Formation Control With Limited Communication Range

“…A vast number of studies exist on decentralized control with other information structures, including, for example, the study of string stability in platoons with ring couplings [24], and the application of graph theory concepts to the control of general formations with complex information paths (e.g., [25], [26]). However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, these studies only apply to structures with homogeneous individual feedback loop dynamics.…”

Passivity-based control for multi-vehicle systems subject to string constraints

“…Considering the general definition of l p string stability in Rogge and Aeyels (2008) and Swaroop and Hedrick (1996), we use the following definition of l 2 string stability with respect to disturbances:…”