Analysis, Synthesis and Experiments of Networked Platoons with Communication Constraints

This paper investigates the analysis and synthesis of networked vehicle platoons with communication delays, packet dropouts and disorders. In order to deal with the effects of the communication constraints, we introduce a novel Smart Data Processor (SDP) for each vehicle, by which the latest data packets from logic Data Packet Processor and the matched data packet from its Buffer can be obtained. Based on this mechanism, a leader-predecessor-follower control strategy is proposed. In order to guarantee the asymptotic and string stability, the platoon control problem is transformed into a multi-objective H∞-type synthesis problem with the multiple time-varying delays. A sufficient condition for designing the controller gain is derived by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. Numerous simulations and experiments with laboratory scale Arduino cars show the efficiency of the proposed methods.