Adaptive Control for Vehicle Platoons with Uncertain Input Delays: an Observer-Based Estimation Approach

This article investigates a connected vehicle platoon with uncertain input delays in the absence of communication between vehicles. The primary control objective is to stabilize the platoon while estimating these uncertain input delays, ensuring that all vehicles maintain the same speed and a safe following distance. An observer is introduced to estimate the velocity and acceleration of the leading vehicle based on position information obtained from onboard sensors. In addition, an adaptive switching logic algorithm is designed to estimate the uncertain input delays for all vehicles. An improved decentralized controller is also proposed to enhance the control of the connected vehicle platoon. The stability analysis demonstrates the potential for achieving string stability within the system. Simulation results further validate the effectiveness of the proposed observer and controller.