Energy-Aware Distributed Sliding Mode Control for Heterogeneous Vehicle Platoons

Vehicle platooning, powered by Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) technologies, offers significant potential for improving transportation efficiency, enhancing road safety, and reducing fuel consumption. This paper addresses the control challenges of heterogeneous vehicle platoons, with the objective of optimizing fuel efficiency while maintaining system stability and the desired inter-vehicle spacing. An enhanced Energy-Aware Distributed Sliding Mode Control (E-DSMC) framework is proposed, integrating the nonlinear dynamics of vehicles within the platoon and their communication topology. The E-DSMC framework introduces a fuel optimization strategy by developing sliding surfaces and reaching laws aimed at minimizing fuel consumption through the regulation of vehicle acceleration. This approach ensures system stability and robustness under various operating conditions—an aspect often overlooked in conventional control methods. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, demonstrating that the improved E-DSMC framework outperforms traditional PID control in terms of fuel efficiency and platoon stability, reducing fuel consumption while ensuring the safety and operational efficiency of the platoon.