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Lateral String Stability in Autonomous & Connected Vehicle Platoons

Neelkamal Somisetty, Swaroop Darbha

TL;DR

This work develops an infrastructure-free lateral control approach for ACV platoons performing Emergency Lane Change maneuvers by exploiting shared GPS data from the lead and preceding vehicles. It introduces a two-trajectory feedforward–feedback controller, with trajectories constructed from circular-arc splines and errors computed relative to each reference; a D-decomposition-based method identifies stabilizing gain sets. The authors prove lateral string stability for straight-line maneuvers and validate the framework through simulations using Lincoln MKZ parameters, showing bounded lateral errors (around 8 cm) and scalable steering commands even for larger platoons. Overall, the paper offers a practical, scalable solution for robust lateral control in connected vehicle networks without reliance on road infrastructure.

Abstract

This paper addresses the lateral control of Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (ACVs) in a platoon executing an Emergency Lane Change (ELC) maneuver. These maneuvers are typically triggered by emergency signals from the front or rear of the platoon in response to the need to avoid obstacles or allow other vehicles to pass. The study assumes that ACVs maintain reliable connectivity, enabling each following vehicle to access GPS position traces of both the lead and immediately preceding vehicles in the platoon. We demonstrate that lateral string stability in the ACV platoon can be achieved using communicated information solely from the lead and preceding vehicles. Additionally, we present a lateral control framework for ACVs, which helps track a discretized preview of the trajectory constructed from the communicated data. This framework involves constructing two distinct trajectories based on the preview data from the lead and preceding vehicles, calculating the associated errors and lateral control actions for each, and then integrating these to generate a steering command. Numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed lateral control scheme.

Lateral String Stability in Autonomous & Connected Vehicle Platoons

TL;DR

This work develops an infrastructure-free lateral control approach for ACV platoons performing Emergency Lane Change maneuvers by exploiting shared GPS data from the lead and preceding vehicles. It introduces a two-trajectory feedforward–feedback controller, with trajectories constructed from circular-arc splines and errors computed relative to each reference; a D-decomposition-based method identifies stabilizing gain sets. The authors prove lateral string stability for straight-line maneuvers and validate the framework through simulations using Lincoln MKZ parameters, showing bounded lateral errors (around 8 cm) and scalable steering commands even for larger platoons. Overall, the paper offers a practical, scalable solution for robust lateral control in connected vehicle networks without reliance on road infrastructure.

Abstract

This paper addresses the lateral control of Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (ACVs) in a platoon executing an Emergency Lane Change (ELC) maneuver. These maneuvers are typically triggered by emergency signals from the front or rear of the platoon in response to the need to avoid obstacles or allow other vehicles to pass. The study assumes that ACVs maintain reliable connectivity, enabling each following vehicle to access GPS position traces of both the lead and immediately preceding vehicles in the platoon. We demonstrate that lateral string stability in the ACV platoon can be achieved using communicated information solely from the lead and preceding vehicles. Additionally, we present a lateral control framework for ACVs, which helps track a discretized preview of the trajectory constructed from the communicated data. This framework involves constructing two distinct trajectories based on the preview data from the lead and preceding vehicles, calculating the associated errors and lateral control actions for each, and then integrating these to generate a steering command. Numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed lateral control scheme.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 17 sections, 25 equations, 5 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. Literature Review and Novel Contributions
  3. Organization
  4. LATERAL DYNAMIC MODEL of an ACV
  5. Lateral Controller Design
  6. Target Trajectory Construction and Feedback Error Signals Computation
  7. Lateral Controller Synthesis
  8. Feedforward controller design
  9. Feedback Controller Design
  10. Constructing the set of stabilizing structured feedback controllers
  11. LATERAL STRING STABILITY for a PLATOON
  12. RESULTS
  13. Vehicle Parameters and Feedback Gains
  14. Simulation Results
  15. Lateral controller performance
  16. ...and 2 more sections

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: Structure of the proposed lateral controller.
  • Figure 2: Sampled trajectories of ACVs in the platoon and information accessible to the ego ACV.
  • Figure 3: Target trajectory for the lead vehicle.
  • Figure 4: Comparison of (a) lateral errors and (b) steering command angles of vehicles following the weighted separate ELC trajectories.
  • Figure 5: Comparison of steering command angles for a 10-ACV platoon following separate and composite liu2024lateral ELC trajectory methods shown in (a) and (b), respectively.

Theorems & Definitions (1)

  • Definition 1: Lateral String Stability