Provably Safe Cruise Control of Vehicular Platoons

Abstract: We synthesize performance-aware safe cruise control policies for longitudinal motion of platoons of autonomous vehicles. Using set-invariance theories, we guarantee infinite-time collision avoidance in the presence of bounded additive disturbances, while ensuring that the length and the cruise speed of the platoon are bounded within specified ranges. We propose (i) a centralized control policy, and (ii) a distributed control policy, where each vehicle's control decision depends solely on its relative kinematics with respect to the platoon leader. Numerical examples are included.