A command governor approach for platooning applications

The present work is concerned with the design of a longitudinal control strategy for platooning applications. Our aim consists in developing a longitudinal controller that can simultaneously offer string stable operation and guarantee satisfaction of physical and safety constraints. To tackle this challenge, a command governor control scheme, based on a two-loop cascade structure, is developed. The inner loop relies on a linear control method and it is able to provide string stable operation for small signals, i.e. when control constraints are inactive. The outer loop revolves around a command governor approach. It monitors the operation of the inner-loop and, when violation of constraints is imminent, changes the inner-loop's setpoint in order to honor the control constraints. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.