Distributed recursive terminal sliding mode control for vehicular platoon systems with mismatched disturbances

Abstract

Platooning of vehicular systems has been considered as an effective solution for alleviating traffic congestion. However, the widely existing matched and mismatched disturbances can greatly affect the safety, efficiency, and comfort of the vehicular systems. In this study, to compensate for both the matched and mismatched disturbances while improving convergence performance, a distributed platoon control problem of vehicular systems is studied under the recursive terminal sliding mode control (RTSMC) framework. A finite-time disturbance observer (FTDO) based on the high-order homogeneous differentiator is proposed for accurate estimation of the matched and mismatched disturbances in finite time. Based on the nested sliding surface structure, an RTSMC scheme is developed for the platooning of vehicular systems. The salient features of the proposed control algorithm are that the fast convergence rate can be reached and the reaching phase is eliminated, which guarantees the safer, more efficient, and more comfortable platooning. Finally, simulations and experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.