Recently, a technical note [4] ensured recursive feasibility in robust model predictive control with multiplicative uncertainty by applying terminal constraints to the degrees of freedom available to the controller while constructing polytopic tube cross sections. The current note extends this technique by bounding the tube parameters in norm and constructing a terminal set based on this bound. This reduces the online computational load and so allows longer prediction horizons to be used.

This paper addresses the control problem of heterogeneous vehicle platoons subject to disturbances and modeling errors. The objective is to guarantee spatial-geometry constraints of vehicles in a platoon. We deal with the case where a predecessor-leader following (PLF) communication topology is used and heterogeneous vehicle dynamics is subject to disturbances. To estimate the lumped disturbance, the technique of unknown input proportional multiple-integral (PMI) observer is employed such that both the state and the disturbance are simultaneously estimated. Moreover, tube-based model predictive control (TMPC) is used and the corresponding control law is composed of a feed-forward term, a feedback term, and a disturbance compensation term. The gains in the integrated control strategy are optimized by utilizing the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm with an H _∞ performance index of an augmented error system. It is proved that the deviations between the actual system and the nominal system are bounded in a robustly positively invariant (RPI) set, that is, the main objective is guaranteed. With the proposed control strategy, simulations and comparisons are carried out. We can see that the control performance of the proposed strategy is significantly improved while the computational time is reduced compared with existing methods.

Recently there have been several proposals for `eco-driving assistance systems', designed to save fuel or electrical power by encouraging behaviours such as gentle acceleration and coasting to a stop. These systems use optimal control to find driving behaviour that minimises vehicle energy losses. In this paper, we introduce a methodology to account for driver preferences on acceleration, braking, following distances and cornering speed in such eco-driving optimal control problems. This consists of an optimal control model of acceleration and braking behaviour containing several physically-meaningful parameters to describe driver preferences. If used in combination with a model of fuel or energy consumption, this can provide an adjustable trade-off between satisfying those preferences and minimising energy losses. We demonstrate that the model gives comparable performance to existing car-following and cornering models when predicting drivers' speed in these situations by comparison with real-world driving data. Finally, we present an example highway braking scenario for an electric vehicle, illustrating a trade-off between satisfying driver preferences on vehicle speed and acceleration and reducing electrical energy usage by up to 43%.

This paper illustrates the potential of a gyroscopic stabiliser for the stabilisation of single-track vehicles, at low and high speed as well as during braking. Alternative systems are considered, including single and twin counter-rotating gyroscopes, spinning and precessing with respect to different axes, either freely (passive stabilisers) or in a controlled way (active stabilisers). A suitable mathematical model has been developed and stability has been investigated both by eigenvalue calculation and time domain simulations. It has been found that the most effective configuration is one where the gyroscope(s) spin with respect to an axis parallel to the wheels' spin axis and swing with respect to the vehicle yaw axis. Passive systems may effectively stabilise both weave and wobble at medium and high speed, but cannot stabilise the vehicle at low and zero speed. On the contrary, actively controlled gyroscopes are capable of stabilising the vehicle in its whole range of operating speed, as well as during braking. The alteration of the original vehicle handling characteristics is negligible when active counter-rotating gyroscopes are used, and still acceptable if a single gyroscope is adopted instead.