Distributed Car-Following Control for Intelligent Connected Vehicle Using Improved Super-Twisting Compensator Subject to Sudden Velocity Changes of Leading Vehicle

The optimal velocity-based model has been successfully applied to distributed car-following systems. However, the car-following performance is inevitably affected by a series of disturbances, particularly, sudden velocity changes of leading vehicle. To improve accuracy and response rate of car-following control in the presence of such disturbances, an improved super-twisting compensator (ISTC) is proposed and a composite controller is designed by combining ISTC with a finite- time controller. A second-order nominal system is constructed by using a virtual measurement signal along with its integration to facilitate the design of ISTC. By introducing the feedback of high-order estimation error, the accuracy and response rate of ISTC are increased significantly as compared with the conventional one under same gains. Such improvement further enhances the disturbance rejection ability of the composite controller. Both Lyapunov approach and numerical simulations are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.