Decentralized Controller Design for String of Moving Vehicles Based on Inclusion Principle

A decomposition methodology to design decentralized feedback controllers for a linear system is proposed in this paper. The controller regulates the position and velocity of every vehicle in a densely packed string of high-speed moving vehicles. The linear model of the vehicle-string velocity and distance bias system can be of overlapping interconnected subsystem models constructed by pair-wise vehicles. Centralized controllers can provide better results but are not suitable for the system due to vehicle autonomies. By using the inclusion principle conditions, the overlapping interconnected structure of the system appears as decoupled. The general theoretical formulation and solution of the decentralized LQG control problem is then presented. Simulation studies are also considered for the case of a string of four vehicles based on the decentralized algorithm. The application results of the decentralized controller illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.