Evaluating the performance of vehicular platoon control under different network topologies of initial states

This study proposes a feedback-based platoon control protocol for connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) under different network topologies of initial states. In particularly, algebraic graph theory is used to describe the network topology. Then, the leader–follower approach is used to model the interactions between CAVs. In addition, feedback-based protocol is designed to control the platoon considering the longitudinal and lateral gaps simultaneously as well as different network topologies. The stability and consensus of the vehicular platoon is analyzed using the Lyapunov technique. Effects of different network topologies of initial states on convergence time and robustness of platoon control are investigated. Results from numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol with respect to the position and velocity consensus in terms of the convergence time and robustness. Also, the findings of this study illustrate the convergence time of the control protocol is associated with the initial states, while the robustness is not affected by the initial states significantly. •A feedback based protocol for platoon control is proposed considering the longitudinal and lateral gaps simultaneously.•The stability and consensus of the vehicular platoon is analyzed using the Lyapunov technique.•Effects of different network topologies of initial states on convergence time and robustness of platoon control are investigated.•Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol with respect to the position and velocity consensus.•The findings illustrate the convergence time is associated with the initial states, while the robustness is not significantly.