Distributed MPC for Nonlinear Networked Vehicle Platoon System with Communication Delays

This paper investigates the platoon control problem for nonlinear networked vehicle systems, while taking into account the communication delay. The nonlinear system is linearly discretized and a linear distributed controller is designed using the distributed model predictive control (DMPC) method, while another controller is designed based on the fusion state estimation method. In the designed controllers, the linear distributed controller controls the stable operation of the platoon, and the fusion state estimation controller helps to solve the problem of missing state values of neighboring nodes caused by communication delay. Finally, simulation verifies the effectiveness of the algorithm and the stability of the vehicle platoon under the communication delay environment.