A Control Method for Initiating and Maintaining Formation of Wheeled Skid-Steering Vehicles based on Distributed Model Predictive Control

The vehicle platoon composed of wheeled skid-steering vehicles can complete tasks such as military material transportation and multi-vehicle traffic under complex working conditions, which can reduce manpower input and improve driving safety. However, it is difficult to realize the formation control of skid-steering vehicles, and there are few research results at present. In this paper, a multi-objective optimal control study of vehicle formation lateral and longitudinal coupling is carried out based on the dynamics model of a skid-steering vehicle. Firstly, the vehicle's three-degree-of-freedom dynamics model, the queue information topology's mathematical model, and the queue geometry's mathematical model are established. Secondly, a multi-objective optimization distributed model predictive control algorithm for vehicle formation is designed. Finally, the simulation results show that under stable driving condition the tracking error of the designed control algorithm is within 0.25 m, the spacing error between vehicles in the queue is within 0.25 m, and the speed error is within 0.4 m/s, which can ensure the safety of driving and the stability of the formation, and has high reliability.