Sliding Mode-Based Time-Headway Dynamics for Heavy Road Vehicle Platoon Control

Controller design for establishing string stability in Heavy Commercial Road Vehicle (HCRV) platoons usually relies on a Constant Time-Headway (CTH) policy while defining the desired intervehicular distance. However, previous studies in this area reported that CTH based design would result in string instability, while the platoon operates on certain road and vehicular operating conditions. In this regard, this paper attempts to incorporate time-headway dynamics along with vehicle dynamics to design string stable controller for HCRV platoons. Sliding Mode Control (SMC) has been suitably been utilized to derive the time-headway dynamics. The headway magnitude that are evolved from the SMC-based time-headway dynamics has been suitably integrated with an Artificial Potential Field (APF)- based string controller. Compared to CTH-based APF controller, the proposed scheme was seen to ensure string stability under wide range of operating conditions, particularly during perturbation maneuvers with high acceleration/deceleration magnitudes on low coefficient of friction roads.