CAVs Platoons Under Nonlinear Spacing Policy and Heterogeneous Communication Delays as a Formation Control Problem

This paper solves the platoon control of nonlinear connected autonomous vehicles under variable spacing policy as a formation problem. The main aim is to guarantee that each vehicle, despite wireless communication impairments, moves according to the imposed speed profile while following the desired spacing, adaptable to different traffic conditions. To this end, we first design a novel full-range nonlinear spacing policy and then, by leveraging formation control theory, a distributed controller ensuring CAVs platoon variable formation, despite the presence of heterogeneous communication time-delay. By exploiting the Lyapunov-Krasovskii approach, we derive a delay-dependent stability condition that, expressed as a set of feasible Linear Matrix Inequalities, allows tuning control gains. Simulation results, carried out via MiTraS platform, disclose the effectiveness of the proposed solution