Autonomous Vehicle Formation Control with Kinematic Constrains

This paper analyzes several control schemes for single-file vehicle platoons. Extensive simulation studies have been conducted based on transfer function analysis to evaluate the performance of existing control schemes and to test the new control schemes suggested in this paper. Concepts of string stability are extended from 1D motion to 2D motion. Several interesting features have been identified. In particular, it was shown that the "path attenuation" effect, that allows an indefinite number of followers to achieve string stability behind a leader, is achievable for a planar trajectory.