Andrés A. Peters

This paper addresses the string stabilization of vehicular platooning when stochastic phenomena are inherent in inter-vehicle communication. To achieve this, we first provide two definitions to analytically assess the string stability in stochastic scenarios, considering the mean and variance of tracking errors as the platoon size grows. Subsequently, we analytically derive necessary and sufficient conditions to achieve this notion of string stability in predecessor-following linear platoons that communicate through additive white noise channels. We conclude that the condition ensuring string stability with ideal communication is essentially the same that achieves stochastic string stability when additive noise channels are in place and guarantees that the tracking error means and variances converge.

This paper studies the mean-square stability of heterogeneous LTI vehicular platoons with inter-vehicle communication channels affected by random data loss. We consider a discrete-time platoon system with predecessor following topology and a constant time-headway spacing policy. Lossy channels are modeled by Bernoulli processes and allowed to be correlated in space. We make use of a class of compensation strategies to reduce the effect of data loss. Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee the convergence of the mean and variance of the tracking errors, which depend not only on the controller design but also on the compensation strategy and the probabilities of successful transmission. We illustrate the theoretical results through numerical simulations, describing different platoon behaviors. We also provide insights on the mean-square stability as a necessary condition for string stability in this stochastic setting.

In this paper, we present the development of a low-cost multi-agent system experimental platform for teaching, and research purposes. The platform consists of train-like autonomous agents equipped with local speed estimation, distance sensing to their nearest predecessor, and wireless communications with other agents and a central coordinator. The individual agents can be used for simple PID experiments in a classroom or laboratory setting, while a collection of agents are capable of performing decentralized platooning with cooperative adaptive cruise control in a variety of settings, the latter being the main goal of the platform. The agents are built from low cost components and programmed with open source software, enabling teaching experiences and experimental work with a larger number of agents that would otherwise be possible with other existing solutions. Additionally, we illustrate with experimental results some of the teaching activities that the platform is capable of performing.

We address the design of decentralized feedback control laws inducing consensus and prescribed spatial patterns over a singular interacting particle system of Cucker-Smale type. The control design consists of a feedback term regulating the distance between each agent and pre-assigned subset of neighbours. Such a design represents a multidimensional extension of existing control laws for 1d platoon formation control. For the proposed controller we study consensus emergence, collision-avoidance and formation control features in terms of energy estimates for the closed-loop system. Numerical experiments in 1, 2 and 3 dimensions assess the different features of the proposed design.

For vehicle platoons, the leader following control architecture is known to be capable of achieving string stability while maintaining tight formations. In this paper, we study a variety of schemes where the leader state is available to the other members of the platoon. We show that in some cases it is possible to achieve string stability in the presence of certain amounts of time delay in the leader state reception. We also compare other properties of the different schemes and discuss some of their advantages and disadvantages.