Platooning of Position-Controlled Vehicles on a Curved Path under Communication Losses and Delays

This article offers an algorithmic solution for moving a homogeneous platoon of position-controlled vehicles on a curved path with varying speeds and in the presence of communication losses and delays. This article considers a trajectory-based platooning with the leader–following communication topology, where the lead vehicle communicates its reference position and orientation to each autonomous follower vehicle. A follower vehicle stores this communicated information for a specific period as a virtual trail of the lead vehicle starting from the lead vehicle’s initial position and orientation. An algorithm uses this trail to find the follower vehicle’s reference position and orientation on that trail, such that the follower vehicle maintains a constant distance from the lead vehicle. The proposed algorithm helps form a platoon where each vehicle can traverse a curve with varying speeds. In contrast, in the existing literature, most of the solutions for vehicle platooning on a curved path demonstrate constant speed motion. This article considers delayed information as lost. Therefore, the communication losses and delays are considered as packet drops. The algorithm uses estimates of the lost information of the lead vehicle’s trail to generate the reference path for the follower vehicles. Analysis of the algorithm shows a relationship between the platoon’s performance and the extent of packet drops. Simulation results agree with the relationship.