Adaptive Control for Reversing a Two-Vehicle Platoon

This paper presents an adaptive tracking controller for a two-vehicle convoy where the lead vehicle is driven in reverse. We assume that the lead vehicle linear and angular velocities are unknown constant parameters. We consider the problem of autonomous vehicle tracking without the use of road infrastructure or inter-vehicle communication. The only information the robot vehicle can use for feedback control is the relative position and orientation with respect to the lead vehicle obtained from onboard sensing. The control velocities of the ego-vehicle are computed using the leader velocity estimates obtained from the dynamic part of the proposed controller. The proposed adaptive control law achieves asymptotic stabilization of the closed-loop system in error coordinates. For constant velocity maneuvers of the leader, at steady state, the two-vehicle convoy will travel concentric arcs of same radii with prescribed inter-vehicle spacing. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.