Decentralized Spacing Control of a String of Multiple Vehicles Over Lossy Datalinks

In spacing control of multiple vehicles as in aircraft, spacecraft formation flying and highway vehicle platooning, previous research has shown that the lead vehicle state is required by all following vehicles in order to achieve leader-to-formation stability. Following vehicles can estimate the lead vehicle's state during losses by assuming that the lead vehicle maintains its speed. In this paper, it is determined that, for bursty links, leader-to-formation stability can be retained if the lead vehicle indeed maintains its speed and if not, the spacing error will not exceed some bound which is some finite factor of the peak value of the lead vehicle's acceleration.