LMI - based control of vehicle platoons for robust longitudinal guidance ⋆ Jan

This paper presents a novel approach to control layout for longitudinal guidance of platoons with a limited number of vehicles. It accounts for both the reduction of spacing errors and a limitation in velocities and accelerations of following vehicles to avoid saturations. All criteria can be expressed using a mixed H2/H∞ problem formulation. The objectives are formulated as one set of linear matrix inequalities that are solved for the controller. The optimization is presented for different control structures and the effectiveness of reducing overshoots in velocities or accelerations is shown through simulation results. This work also considers structural constraints concerning the information available to the controller and evaluates a sequential control algorithm applying the same layout method. Finally, the effects of changing parameters of the vehicle’s drivetrain are analyzed and robustness of the presented controllers is investigated.