Cooperative control for a platoon of vehicles with leader-following communication strategy

In this paper, the vehicle dynamics model for a cooperative platoon with leader-following communication strategy is established by feedback linearization method when considering the slope angle of the road. Based on the model, a distributed control law is proposed with the state information of leading and preceding vehicles. In order to ensure individual vehicle stability, Routh-Hurwitz criterion is applied. At the same time, the conditions of string stability are derived by the methods of transfer function and frequency domain analysis. Then, an algorithm for the cooperative platoon is presented. Lastly, digital simulations and experiments with the Arduino cars are used to validate the design of above.