Distributed vehicular platoon control considering communication delays and packet dropouts

The influence of both inter-vehicular communication delays and packet dropouts on platoon control performance is studied. First, the conditions for achieving platoon mean square stability (MSS) are derived for three cases: undirected information flow (UIF) topology with time delays and identical packet losses, general information flow topology (IFT) with time delays and identical packet losses, and general IFT with time delays and non-identical packet losses. These conditions explicitly reveal how packet dropout rates, time delays, and IFT jointly affect vehicular stability. Second, in order to mitigate the impact of time delays and packet dropouts on platoon MSS, some feasible controllers are proposed for each one of the three cases by solving the corresponding modified Riccati inequalities (MRIs). In comparison with existing results, the provided conditions are easily determinable, and the offered controllers are simple to implement, with low computational complexity. Furthermore, they expand upon existing research findings. Finally, simulations are conducted to compare different time delays and packet loss rates, which validate the theoretical discoveries, also demonstrate the robustness and feasibility of the proposed methods using a platoon of passenger cars and realistic vehicle dynamics.