Trajectory Generation for Vehicle Platoons with Input and State Constraints

The motion of vehicle platoons depends on the motion of the platoon leader. The subject of this paper is the computation of minimum-time leader trajectories for velocity changes in platoons. In contrast to the current literature, input restriction is defined due to the fact that the engine power is within certain limits and condition restriction is defined for safe travelling. Applying cooperative adaptive cruise control, we ensure driving safety and comfort, and we account for practical limits on the input signal of all platoon vehicles. We show that suitable trajectories can be computed analytically and we illustrate our findings by a simulation study.