Controller Methods for Vehicle Platooning

Abstract: A formation of vehicles with close inter-vehicledistances is referred to as a vehicle platoon. Platooning is madepossible by implementing controllers that regulates vehicles’velocities based on information from the rest of the platoon,independently from human interaction. This report studies howthe stability of the system is affected by the choice of availableinformation for each vehicle. Vehicle models are implemented asblock diagrams in Simulink and the feedback gains are calculatedusing MATLAB. The vehicles’ behaviors are simulated using apredefined acceleration profile for the leader. The results showthat the system reacts differently to changes in the leader’sacceleration depending on which states each vehicle determinesits control signal on. Stability is best achieved by having thevehicles communicating with the vehicle in front and the leadingvehicle. It is also shown that time delays negatively affects thestability of the system, but stability is still best achieved whenvehicles communicate with the vehicle in front and the leadingvehicle.