In order to promote the actual application of the vehicular platoon, this study
investigates the effect of the specific platoon configurations including
predecessor following (PF), predecessor–leader following (PLF), and
bidirectional following (BD), on the anti-disturbing performance from the linear
to nonlinear perspective. First, based on the method of sensitivity of error
propagation to the disturbance, a linear platoon model is established by
considering an individual vehicle as a lumped-mass point. Then, the transfer
function matrix from disturbance to spacing error is derived for sensitivity
analysis. Finally, especially considering the inherent vehicle dynamics, the
Burckhardt tire force model is adopted to construct a nonlinear platoon dynamics
model for the nonlinear dynamics analysis. The results reveal the
characteristics of each platoon configuration, as well as the design of control
gains in terms of the anti-disturbing performance. The nonlinear dynamics
property in high-adhesion conditions are generally similar to those of the
sensitivity analysis based on the linear platoon model. However, some particular
and complex phenomena different from the linear sensitivity analysis especially
in low-adhesion conditions are only observed by the nonlinear dynamics
analysis.
