Predictive control of a vehicle convoy considering lane change behavior of the preceding vehicle

In this paper, a model predictive control approach is proposed for a vehicle convoy traveling on homogeneous highway. Specifically, the lane change behavior of a cut-in vehicle in front of the vehicle convoy is estimated and predicted for the predictive control of the leading vehicle in the convoy. In order to capture state differences of the preceding vehicle in different lane change manners, a cost function considering riding comfort and spacing safety is designed for the leading vehicle based on the free headway set ahead. The proposed cost function integrates trajectory differences of the cut-in vehicle, which makes the controller sensible to different lane change manners. The space keeping and velocity tracking performance of the controller is tested and compared with a conservative controller under different lane change behavior of the cutin vehicle. Furthermore, the control effects on the spacing and velocity of the followers in the convoy are analyzed. The simulation results show that the controller considering lane change behavior difference has smaller velocity and spacing fluctuations dealing with lane change disturbance.