Variable Time Headway Policy Based Platoon Control for Heterogeneous Connected Vehicles With External Disturbances

This article develops a new platoon control strategy for heterogeneous connected vehicles (CVs) subject to time delays and external disturbances. Specifically, based on the third-order vehicle model, a novel platoon controller is developed by embedding the variable time headway (VTH) spacing policy and the nonlinear motion coupling interactions between CVs. Simultaneously, an integral sliding mode (ISM) controller is developed to resist the disturbances. Then, the condition of asymptotic stability for the CV platoon and the upper bound of communication delay are deduced by using the Lyapunov theorem. Also, the string stability is proved by using the infinity-norm method. Finally, extensive simulations and co-simulations are provided to show the validity of the developed controller. Moreover, experiments with intelligent micro vehicles are conducted further to validate the practical feasibility of the developed controller.