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Stability and the string stability of a platoon of adaptive cruise control (ACC) vehicles using a constant spacing are investigated. Due to realistic design and execution, negative effect of tracking lag parameter on the stability is examined. An efficient analytical approach is presented in order to obtain a sufficient stability condition in the domain of the control parameters. The stability criterion is examined using a partial differential equation (PDE) approximation using large number of vehicles subjected to the time lags in vehicle dynamics and heterogeneity in the control laws, which allows asymmetry in the use of front and back information. The string stability analysis is performed to evaluate the disturbance attenuation. Finally, an example of multiple vehicle platoon control is presented, which demonstrates the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The problem of controlling a string of vehicles moving in one dimension is considered so that they all follow a lead vehicle with constant spacing between successive vehicles. Due to practical design and implementation, the negative effect of the tracking lag parameter is taken into account. A hierarchical platoon controller design framework is established comprising a feedback linearization controller at the first layer and a decentralized bidirectional control controller at the second layer. The stability criterion is examined by using a partial differential equation approximation in the limit of the number of vehicles subjected to unequal asymmetry in position and velocity feedback. For disturbance attenuation, string stability analysis is also examined. At the end of the paper, simulations are given to show the efficiency of the proposed results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]