A Decentralized Controller for Platooning of Connected Cars Subject to Swerving Behavior of Motorized Two-Wheelers

Abstract

Connected vehicles are expected to play a pivotal role in the future of road transportation. One of the major advantages of connected vehicles is their ability to perform cooperative movement, such as platooning, in order to ensure better safety and efficiency. In the near future, connected vehicles will have to co-exist and interoperate with other human-driven vehicles. This necessitates the study of cooperative movement of connected vehicles subject to the behavior of human-driven vehicles. We study a platooning scenario with two different vehicle types: (i) connected cars (CCs) and (ii) human-driven motorized two-wheelers (MTWs). The CCs are automated and can share information with each other, while a human-driven MTW does not have any level of automation. An MTW may either follow the CC ahead, i.e. participate in the platoon, or choose to swerve away. The objective of this paper is to design a decentralized controller for the CCs that can ensure a safe headway with respect to the preceding vehicle, even under the swerving behavior of motorcyclists. The interaction between the CCs and behavior of the MTWs are captured using a random graph. The Algebraic Riccati equation is then used to derive a linear consensus controller that achieves the desired platoon spacing. The proposed design is corroborated through numerical simulations.