Co-Design of Consensus-Based Approach and Reliable Communication Protocol for Vehicular Platoon Control

Automated and coordinated vehicle platoon driving is challenging as the complexity of vehicle control and the presence of unreliable wireless inter-vehicle communication. This subject has an interdisciplinary nature, involving control theories, vehicle dynamics, and communication. Due to the constant interaction between control logic and communication topology, a co-design approach for the controller and for reliable communication protocol becomes necessary. This paper describes the AddP-CACC - a consensus-based solution to vehicle platoons. The proposed solution turns the communication topology into a design parameter that dynamically reconfigures the controller. In addition, the controller automatically compensates for outdated information caused by network losses and delays. AddP-CACC was implemented in the PLEXE tool and was compared with other related works. Simulation results have shown the robustness and performance of the proposed solution in various scenarios that would include realistic propagation conditions with interference caused by other vehicles. The results have also evidenced the ability of the proposed solution to maintain a stable vehicular platoon by using different communication topologies, different vehicle flows, even in the presence of strong interferences, delays, and fading conditions.