Prescribed-Time Control of Vehicular Platoons Based on a Disturbance Observer

This brief focuses on the problem of prescribed-time platoon control for vehicles with external disturbances. First, a novel disturbance observer is developed, which can accurately estimate the disturbance with zero estimation error within a specified time. Then, a prescribed-time control scheme is proposed, by employing the disturbance observer and sliding mode control method. It is proved that the given control scheme can not only ensure the tracking errors converge to the origin in the prescribed time, but also the settling time can be preassigned by assigning a simple parameter within physically allowable range. Meanwhile, the prescribed-time string stability of the platoon is also guaranteed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is illustrated by numerical simulations.