Distributed Model Reference Adaptive Control Based on Cooperative Observer with Optimal Control Modification for Synchronization of Heterogeneous Vehicle Platoon

Abstract

Many distributed controllers for vehicle platoon are designed based on homogeneous assumption and full state information. In reality, vehicle platoon may consist of heterogeneous vehicles and may have limited information due to sensor constraints. Therefore, this paper proposes a distributed model reference adaptive control based on cooperative observer for a heterogeneous vehicle platoon with limited output information and subjected to uncertain dynamics. Cooperative observer provides a full state estimation of the system. Each follower has a reference model that is designed based on its nominal model and cooperative state variable feedback. Main control system is composed of (i) nominal control that utilized the cooperative state estimation tracking error and (ii) adaptive term that adopted an optimal control modification as an adaptation law. The tracking error of followers to the reference model is shown uniformly bounded and the stability of the platoon is guaranteed through detailed analysis. Performance of the proposed controller is verified by using numerical simulation. To show the advantage of the proposed control, simulation results are compared to the standard distributed model reference adaptive control that is applied for heterogeneous vehicle platoon. It is shown that the proposed control eliminated the high frequency oscillation in the control input.