A new spacing policy in a platoon using extremum-seeking controller on an anti-lock braking system

Enhancing road capacity, safety, and energy efficiency is a potential outcome of vehicle platooning. Since platooning involves driving close to each other, it is essential to have minimal stopping distance (SD) during emergency braking. However, the anti-lock braking system (ABS) in a vehicle and unknown road type would further increase the SD. For this, a novel spacing policy using extremum-seeking control (ESC) estimated ABS has been proposed in this paper. An optimal slip ratio of that particular road type can be tracked and found using ESC estimation to maintain the maximum friction in ABS for all road conditions to have a minimal SD. The primary objective is to minimize the inter-gap distance while incorporating the ABS features. The simulation and experimentation of ABS for the set of non-linear vehicles on different road conditions have been carried out and numerical results have been compared with conventional ABS systems. The results show that the ABS with ESC estimation reduces the SD by seeking the optimal slip ratio and a new spacing policy for the platoon has been expressed using regression analysis. The entire simulated scenario has been implemented in hardware to validate the proposed model as a quarter-car model.