Analysis and experimental validation of decentralized controllers for delayed spacing policies in vehicle-platooning

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new framework for decentralized vehicle platoon control that explicitly accounts for delays in actuation and communication, ensuring string stability through novel spacing policies validated experimentally.

Contribution

It presents a control design framework and necessary conditions for delayed-based spacing policies, advancing vehicle platooning control strategies.

Findings

Spacing policies that account for delays improve platoon stability.

Decentralized control design ensures string stability.

Experimental validation confirms theoretical predictions.

Abstract

In this paper, a novel approach to spacing policies for vehicle platoons and a framework for control design is presented. Whereas traditional approaches aim to mitigate the effect of actuation and communication delays on the spacing error, this paper presents spacing policies that account for delays. A framework for decentralized control design is presented and necessary and sufficient conditions for tracking of delayed-based spacing policies are stated. It is shown that due to the control design, string stability is induced by the spacing policy. The results are supported by experimental validations of the theoretical results.