Control of Connected Vehicles in Road Network via Traffic Flow Information Feedback

This study investigates the control problem of connected vehicles in urban roads where autonomous intersection manager (AIM) platforms are involved to manage the network traffic flow. A hierarchical framework for integrated vehicular platoon-road control is established to guarantee plant stability and string stable platoons and coordinate traffic flow. At the first layer, the intersection manager plays the role of regulating the velocity of the leader of approaching vehicular platoons based on a road traffic density model, which aims to fairly balance the traffic flow among the connected intersections. At the second layer, an integral sliding mode (ISM) controller is introduced to maintain platoon velocity consistency with its leader and the desired inter-vehicle distance. The presented ISM controller is capable of rejecting the inter-vehicle communication delay and the leader’s acceleration disturbance, which is illustrated by numerical simulations.