A Platoon Control Strategy for Autonomous Vehicles Based on Sliding-Mode Control Theory

Platooning is one of the innovations in the automotive industry, which aims to improve the safety and efficiency of automobiles, while alleviating traffic congestion, reducing pollution, and reducing passenger pressure. According to the car-following (CF) theory, a platoon control strategy for autonomous vehicles based on sliding-mode control (SMC) theory is proposed. This strategy can be applied to achieve the rapid platoon forming of multiple autonomous vehicles and maintain the stable state of the vehicle platoon. The Multiple Velocity Difference (MVD) model is selected to describe the positional state of vehicle platoon changing over time. The control target is to converge the error between the actual headway (the distance between front tips of two neighboring cars) and the expected headway to zero while ensuring the stable velocity and acceleration of the platoon. In addition, a hypothetical first car strategy is proposed to improve the control efficiency. Numerical simulation experiments for urban roads and highways are designed, the space-time states of vehicle platoon under different MVD model parameters (non-control strategy) and sliding-mode control strategies are compared. The results show: proposed improved vehicle platoon sliding-mode control strategy can provide a shorter time of forming a platoon and better stability in the simulated environment, and its control effect is better than that of non-control strategy and conventional sliding-mode control strategy. Besides the proposed strategy allows vehicle platoon to quickly reach a stable and controllable state, and it provides an idea for collaborative control of autonomous vehicles.