Sampled-Data Control for Connected Vehicles With Markovian Switching Topologies and Communication Delay

This paper investigates a sampled-data control problem for connected vehicles subject to switching topologies, communication delays, and external disturbances. A tracking error-based sampled-data platoon control method is proposed, where the neighboring vehicles state information is transmitted via the VANET with communication delay. By representing the switching communication topology by a Markovian chain, the platoon control system is modeled as a Markovian switching time-delay system with disturbance. In the context of Markovian jumping system theory, a platoon control methodology is obtained to guarantee that the tracking errors can be stabilized mean-square exponentially with a given disturbance attenuation level. The platoon controllers with both fixed and variable gains are suggested. The results are extended to cover partially unknown transition rates of the Markov chains. The numerical examples with comparative results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the results.