Distributed Cooperative Control of Vehicle Platoon Based on a Composite Safety Distance

A distributed cooperative control of the vehicle platoon is proposed in this study based on a composite safety distance model under highway condition. To begin with, a supervisor controller, combining the dominant superiorities between the constant time headway and the improved driver-preview safety distance models, is designed to ensure the safety of the vehicle platoon under the complex highway condition. Afterwards, model predictive control method is employed to design the lateral controller of each individual vehicle, which can achieve the satisfactory tracking performance of the vehicle posture due to its multi-constraint processing and rolling optimization advantages. Meanwhile, sliding mode control method is applied in the velocity controller of each individual vehicle because of its numerous merits, such as fast convergence and strong robustness, to ensure safety distance maintenance. In the end, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified under the Matlab/Simulink environment.