Improved model predictive control for cooperative adaptive cruise control subject to actuator delay

In this paper, an improved distributed model predictive control (MPC) algorithm subject to actuator delay of vehicles in cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) system is proposed. Firstly the traditional model predictive control approach is analyzed, which solves the incremental control input by transforming the MPC problem with constraints into a standard quadratic programming (QP) problem and introduces a slack variable to soften constraints. However, the traditional MPC controller cannot meet the requirement of tracking performance and safety when the actuator delay is taken into account. Therefore, an improved MPC algorithm using the method of dynamic matrix control (DMC) is proposed. Numerical simulations show that the tracking performance of the improved MPC algorithm can be maintained in different actuator delay while the performance of traditional one becomes poor or even unstable, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.