In addition to decentralized controllers, the information flow among vehicles can significantly affect the dynamics of a platoon. This paper studies the influence of information flow topology on the internal stability and scalability of homogeneous vehicular platoons moving in a rigid formation. A linearized vehicle longitudinal dynamic model is derived using the exact feedback linearization technique, which accommodates the inertial delay of powertrain dynamics. Directed graphs are adopted to describe different types of allowable information flow interconnecting vehicles, including both radar-based sensors and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. Under linear feedback controllers, a unified internal stability theorem is proved by using the algebraic graph theory and Routh-Hurwitz stability criterion. The theorem explicitly establishes the stabilizing thresholds of linear controller gains for platoons, under a large class of different information flow topologies. Using matrix eigenvalue analysis, the scalability is investigated for platoons under two typical information flow topologies, i.e., 1) the stability margin of platoon decays to zero as 0(1/N ² ) for bidirectional topology; and 2) the stability margin is always bounded and independent of the platoon size for bidirectional-leader topology. Numerical simulations are used to illustrate the results.

This paper presents a distributed model predictive control (DMPC) algorithm for heterogeneous vehicle platoons with unidirectional topologies and a priori unknown desired set point. The vehicles (or nodes) in a platoon are dynamically decoupled but constrained by spatial geometry. Each node is assigned a local open-loop optimal control problem only relying on the information of neighboring nodes, in which the cost function is designed by penalizing on the errors between the predicted and assumed trajectories. Together with this penalization, an equality-based terminal constraint is proposed to ensure stability, which enforces the terminal states of each node in the predictive horizon equal to the average of its neighboring states. By using the sum of local cost functions as a Lyapunov candidate, it is proved that asymptotic stability of such a DMPC can be achieved through an explicit sufficient condition on the weights of the cost functions. Simulations with passenger cars demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed DMPC.

This paper presents a novel vehicular adaptive cruise control (ACC) system that can comprehensively address issues of tracking capability, fuel economy and driver desired response. A hierarchical control architecture is utilized in which a lower controller compensates for nonlinear vehicle dynamics and enables tracking of desired acceleration. The upper controller is synthesized under the framework of model predictive control (MPC) theory. A quadratic cost function is developed that considers the contradictions between minimal tracking error, low fuel consumption and accordance with driver dynamic car-following characteristics while driver longitudinal ride comfort, driver permissible tracking range and rear-end safety are formulated as linear constraints. Employing a constraint softening method to avoid computing infeasibility, an optimal control law is numerically calculated using a quadratic programming algorithm. Detailed simulations with a heavy duty truck show that the developed ACC system provides significant benefits in terms of fuel economy and tracking capability while at the same time also satisfying driver desired car following characteristics.

The platooning of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) is expected to have a transformative impact on road transportation, e.g., enhancing highway safety, improving traffic utility, and reducing fuel consumption. Requiring only local information, distributed control schemes are scalable approaches to the coordination of multiple CAVs without using centralized communication and computation. From the perspective of multi-agent consensus control, this paper introduces a decomposition framework to model, analyze, and design the platoon system. In this framework, a platoon is naturally decomposed into four interrelated components, i.e., 1) node dynamics, 2) information flow network, 3) distributed controller, and 4) geometry formation. The classic model of each component is summarized according to the results of the literature survey; four main performance metrics, i.e., internal stability, stability margin, string stability, and coherence behavior, are discussed in the same fashion. Also, the basis of typical distributed control techniques is presented, including linear consensus control, distributed robust control, distributed sliding mode control, and distributed model predictive control.