Distributed State Observers-based Nonlinear Controller for Vehicle Platoon

This paper proposes an adaptive control algorithm for vehicle platoon based on distributed observers. Firstly, considering that the target trajectory is only accessible to leader vehicle, a distributed state observer is proposed for follower vehicles to estimate the state of leader vehicle. Secondly, based on the observer, an adaptive tracking controller is designed to make follower vehicles track the trajectory of leader vehicle. The controller utilizes a neural network to approximate the unknown dynamics, thereby removing the assumption that vehicle dynamics is fully known. Additionally, this controller utilizes hyperbolic tangent functions to compensate the dynamic coupling between vehicles. Finally, stability of the vehicle platoon is proved via Lyapunov method, and the effectiveness of the controller is verified through numerical simulation and SimulinklPreScan co-simulation.