Design of Decentralized Adaptive Controllers for a Class of Interconnected Nonlinear Dynamical Systems : Part 1 *

We consider the class of interconnected nonlinear dynamical systems suggested by the problem of longitudinal control of a platoon of vehicles on automated highways. After describing the physical setting from which the control problem arises, we propose a decentralized adaptive control scheme for this class of interconnected nonlinear systems. Then, we establish that the proposed adaptive control scheme is suitable for monotonicaZZy decreasing the magnitude of deviations of each dynamical system’s state from its sink manifold provided that a) the exogenous input is varying sufficiently slowly and b) the state-observer error is sufficiently small. An important feature of this adaptive control scheme is that these deviations are bounded independent of the parameter errors. *This work was performed as part of the PATH Program of the University of California, in cooperation with the State of California, Business and Transportation Agency, Department of Transportation, and the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. The contents of this report reflect the views of the author who is responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the State of California. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation. tAuthors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, te1:(510)643-5806, email: shahab @united.berkeley.edu, fax:(510)6422845.