Hierarchical Distributed Model‐Free Adaptive Fault‐Tolerant Vehicular Platooning Control

ABSTRACT In this article, a hierarchical distributed model‐free adaptive fault‐tolerant vehicular platooning control scheme for nonlinear vehicular platooning systems (VPSs) is studied. First of all, the dynamic linearization technique (DLT) is utilized to acquire an equivalent linear data model for nonlinear VPSs. Secondly, a hierarchical control structure is developed to realize the vehicular platooning tracking control task, which consists of the upper‐layer adaptive distributed observer and the under‐layer decentralized model‐free adaptive vehicular platooning tracking controller. In order to make each follower vehicle get the leader's information, the adaptive distributed observer is employed to get the estimation value of leader's information. In addition, for the purpose of ensuring the safety of driving, the radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) algorithm is utilized to address the problem of sensor failures. Based on this, a novel hierarchical distributed model‐free adaptive fault‐tolerant vehicular platooning control scheme is designed to achieve simultaneous tracking of vehicular position and speed. Lastly, the validity of the theoretical control scheme is demonstrated through a realistic and detailed simulation example of a VPS.