Enhancing Vehicle Platooning Safety via Control Node Placement and Sizing under State and Input Bounds

Vehicle platooning with Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control improves traffic efficiency, reduces energy consumption, and enhances safety but remains vulnerable to cyber-attacks that disrupt communication and cause unsafe actions. To address these risks, this paper investigates control node placement and input bound optimization to balance safety and defense efficiency under various conditions. We propose a two-stage actuator placement and actuator saturation approach, which focuses on identifying key actuators that maximize the system’s controllability while operating under state and input constraints. By strategically placing and limiting the input bounds of critical actuators, we ensure that vehicles maintain safe distances even under attack. Simulation results show that our method effectively mitigates the impact of attacks while preserving defense efficiency, offering a robust solution to vehicle platooning safety challenges.