Improving the Dynamics of a Vehicular Platooning by Taking Account of Individual Vehicle Dynamics

In this work, to improve the platooning dynamics, a novel platooning control method is proposed which is realized by taking account of the individual vehicle dynamics in the platooning control decision. Wheel dynamics is viewed as an input disturbance to be involved in the platooning controller to compensate the effect of individual vehicle dynamics on the entire platooning dynamics. The proposed control scheme is evaluated by simulations based on a homogeneous platoon comprised of eight identical cars. The dynamics of each car is characterized by a four-degree-of-freedom (4DOF) single-track nonlinear vehicle model. Simulation results revealed that it is important to prevent the individual vehicle losing stability by regulating the wheel rotational dynamics for the platooning stability. Feedforward of wheel speed in the upper platooning controller can remarkably compensate the effect of individual vehicle dynamics, so the propagation of large wheel slip can be well attenuated and thus the entire platooning dynamics is improved.