Vehicular platooning using distributed receding horizon control

A method for controlling a vehicle i within a platoon, the method comprising

• receiving a position and velocity error trajectory for an immediately preceding vehicle i−1 from the immediately preceding vehicle i−1;
• calculating a local optimal control problem and velocity control of the vehicle i based on the received position and velocity error trajectory for the immediately preceding vehicle i−1;
• calculating a position and velocity error trajectory for the vehicle i;
• and
• transmitting the calculated position and velocity error trajectory for the vehicle i to an immediately following vehicle i+1.

A platoon control system comprising:

• a plurality of vehicles arranged in a platoon configuration, each vehicle (i=1, . . . , Nv) including a controller including:
• a computer processor, which is configured to execute instructions stored on a memory to calculate a local optimal control problem, including velocity control of the vehicle i, and to calculate a position and velocity error trajectory for the vehicle i;
• and
• a communication terminal configured to receive a position and velocity error trajectory for an immediately preceding vehicle i−1 when i>1, and transmit the position and velocity error trajectory calculated by the computer processor for the vehicle i to an immediately following vehicle i+1 when i<Nv, wherein
• a leader vehicle i=1 starts an initialization to initiate an update period to change a desired speed, and broadcasts to all other vehicles of the platoon, only at the initialization, a new desired speed broadcast by the leader vehicle.