Longitudinal Inter-Vehicle Distance Control of Autonomous Vehicle Platoons Subjected to Internal and External Disturbances

The idea of autonomous vehicle platoons presents a variety of social, economic, and safety benefits to the transportation industry. However, implementing and deploying autonomous vehicle platoons is still a challenge. In this paper, we present a PID-based computationally cost-efficient controller to aid in the longitudinal control of the inter-vehicle distance between successive platoon members. The proposed approach is facilitated by inter-vehicle communication. The algorithm was implemented using the Robotics Operating System and Gazebo simulation environment. In order to evaluate the performance and applicability of the proposed approach, meticulous simulations under numerous scenarios were performed using 3D vehicle models so as to mimic the real world. The algorithm successfully maintains the longitudinal inter-vehicle distance within the desired range, ensures that no collisions occur among platoon members, and preserves the platoon formation.