Longitudinal cooperative control for a bidirectional platoon of vehicles with constant time headway policy

Abstract

This paper establishes a dynamics model for a bidirectional platoon of vehicles by the feedback linearisation method when the platoon drives along a horizontal road. On the basis of this model, a distributed integrated sliding mode control(ISMC) law is proposed with the states of immediate predecessor and successor. To meet the finite-time individual vehicle stability and string stability simultaneously, a coupled sliding mode surface and Lyapunov function are applied to the platoon with constant time headway policy(CTHP). Then, in order to compare the performance of the platoon with CTHP and CSP(constant spacing policy), numerical simulations with a six-vehicle platoon are used to prove the effectiveness of the design.