Adaptive finite‐time cooperative platoon control of connected vehicles under actuator saturation

Abstract This paper investigates cooperative platoon control of connected vehicles subject to parameter uncertainties, external disturbances, and actuator saturation. Firstly, a approximation method based on radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is employed to approximate the nonlinear vehicle dynamics and adaptive estimation laws are introduced to tackle the environment disturbances and the unknown upper bound of the actuator saturation, external disturbances and actuator saturation.Then, based on the backstepping technique, compensator‐based command filter and the finite time theory, a robust finite‐time cooperative controller is proposed, with which the tracking error will converge to a small region of origin within settling time. Namely, the given control method can guarantee all the signals in the control system to be finite‐time stabilized. Besides, the problem of “explosion of complexity” in backstepping control is solved by command filter technique. Finally, the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated by numerical simulations.