Embedding Robust Constraint-Following Control in Cooperative On-Ramp Merging

Cooperative on-ramp merging control for connected and automated vehicles have been widely studied in recent years. One of the major challenges for this multi-vehicle coordination problem is to execute a safe and efficient merging process considering realistic uncertainties in vehicle dynamics. This paper puts forward a two-layer merging control framework made up of centralized sequencing and distributed control. A Roadside Agent installed in the merging area identifies the merging sequence of vehicles approaching the merging area in terms of their estimated time of arrival at the merging point. Once the sequence is determined, distributed controllers will guide the vehicles to execute the merging process. The controller is designed based on Udwadia-Kalaba approach and Lyapunov stability theory and is capable of handling nonlinear vehicle dynamics and time-varying uncertainty. It renders both uniform boundedness and uniform ultimate boundedness performance for the spacing error and thus executes the merging process effectively. Simulations results verify the superiority of the proposed control method compared with baselines methods. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed method is also validated under different traffic demands and multiple-vehicle-pack merging situation.