Robust Following Control of Unmanned Vehicles: A Case of Disturbances

In real traffic operation applications, disturbances arising from varying external environments may lead to tracking errors of unmanned vehicles. On complex traffic scene, the speed and angle of the leader are changing over time, while the expected relative distance and angle between the unmanned vehicles are time-varying as well. To ensure the robust vehicle following, this paper establishes a control error model involving the disturbances in the lead- follower modes. Then, a robust controller is developed to tackle the inevitable disturbance in vehicle following. The stability of the designed controller and the gradual convergence of the control error are proved theoretically by using the Lyapunov method. Finally, simulations are performed to validate the proposed robust control approach in presence of disturbances.