On the Effects of Network Delays on an Energy-based Controller

In this paper, the design of an energy-based controller for a platoon of nonholonomic vehicles is presented and its performance is analysed for the case of random time delays in the network. The nonholonomic constraints of the models are taken into account during the design process by considering them in the goal virtual Lagrange function. The introductory section gives an overview of the energy methods for the case of mass point vehicles. Subsequently, the strategy is extended to apply to the case of nonholonomic vehicles. The controller is analysed by means of simulation tools in order to evaluate the effects of random Rayleigh distributed delays on the network.