Autonomous platooning of multiple ground vehicles in rough terrain

Abstract

AbstractThis study proposes an autonomous platooning algorithm, composed of velocity, and path planning systems, of multiple ground vehicles in rough terrain. The velocity planning system aims to maintain desired distance between preceding and rear vehicles, and the path planning system generates reliable path to make the vehicles move safely under the given rough environment. To supply a reliable velocity command for the maintenance of the predefined distance, a disturbance observer (DOB)‐based control method is employed. An uncertainty‐free longitudinal kinematic model is first utilized for a nominal velocity generator and the DOB is added to the nominal velocity planner for handling various uncertainties generated during the autonomous platooning. On the other hand, the path planning method is developed by employing a passivity‐based model predictive control method. With a derived passivity constraint, the stability of the platooning architecture, that is, the platooning performance, is improved. In addition, the proposed path planning method utilizes dynamic and kinematic models of the ground vehicle as equality constraints, and limited range of states and control input as inequality constraints, and perception result about the vehicle's own neighborhood is employed for generation of the path only in traversable region. Its solution is obtained using the particle swarm optimization method. Then, to follow the generated velocity and path commands, a well developed driving controller, commercially obtainable, is utilized. Finally, field tests are conducted to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm.