Dynamic Event-Triggered Model Predictive Control for Multiple Platoons Under Nonideal Communications

The uncertainty of wireless communication seriously affects the control performance of the platoon. In this article, a model predictive control (MPC) method based on dynamic event-triggering is proposed to address the impact of nonideal communications on multivehicle systems. First, a hierarchical platoon architecture combining backbone layer and subplatoon layers is proposed to achieve efficient coordination among multiple platoons, and a communication-aware control mechanism is designed for each vehicle to effectively mitigate the adverse effects of nonideal communication scenarios. Second, a dynamic event-triggering mechanism is established for each vehicle, which is related to time-varying delay and random packet loss parameters, so as to effectively reduce the frequency of MPC solutions and data transmission. Additionally, based on different communication topologies, distributed model predictive controllers are suggested for backbone layer and subplatoon layer to achieve precise and comfortable tracking. Then, sufficient conditions are provided to ensure the recursive feasibility of the MPC algorithm and the stability of the platoon system. Finally, extensive simulations are conducted, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in terms of control performance and low computational complexity under nonideal communication conditions.