Suppression of Traffic Oscillations by Vehicular Platoons with Periodic Control Configuration

Traffic oscillations degrade the operational efficiency and safety of vehicular platoons. This study proposes a predecessor-following platoon with periodically assigned feedback gains and investigates its frequency-selective disturbance attenuation mechanism. An auxiliary second-order undamped periodic model is first established, and the Bloch–Floquet formulation is used to derive the nominal dispersion relation and bandgap boundaries. Closed-loop disturbance attenuation is then evaluated separately using spacing-error transfer matrices that retain positive velocity feedback and actuator-response lag. Frequency-domain transmission analysis and time-domain simulations show that, under nominal homogeneous and fully controllable connected and automated vehicle (CAV) assumptions, the periodic gain configuration creates tunable attenuation bands and provides stronger downstream attenuation than a homogeneous-gain configuration. The results clarify the relationship among periodic gain assignment, bandgap formation, periodic-cell string stability, and finite-length traffic-wave suppression. The effects of vehicle heterogeneity, sensing delay, and mixed traffic remain topics for future investigation.