Multi-Vehicle Platoon Control With Time-Varying Input Delays

Platooning, or controlled management of vehicle formation, enables multiple vehicles equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems to drive behind one another with a specified inter-vehicle distance, acting together as one unit. Typically, delays in throttle and brake response, as well as in vehicle computer systems, are unpredictable and time-varying, and can ultimately lead to performance degradation and system destabilization. The platoon control system must thus be designed in a way so as to mitigate the effects delays can impose on system stability. This paper presents a novel robust multi-vehicle platoon control algorithm that compensates for time-varying delays under the integral quadratic constraint (IQC) framework. All vehicle models are assumed to incorporate heterogeneous time-varying actuation/input delays. The simulation results exemplify the controller’s effectiveness in maintaining overall stability and platooning performance in the presence of time-varying input delays.