Observer-based data-driven finite-time prescribed performance control for nonlinear vehicular platooning systems

A data-driven finite-time prescribed performance hierarchical controller algorithm is investigated for nonlinear vehicular platooning systems in this article, where the hierarchical control structure consists of a distributed observer and a decentralised data-driven controller. Given that partial following vehicles cannot directly receive the information from the leading vehicle, the distributed observer is devised to receive the leading vehicle's information. Then, the finite-time performance function and the error transformation function are constructed to achieve the prescribed performance control (PPC) in finite time. Subsequently, the decentralised data-driven controller is proposed to allow following vehicles to keep up with the estimated information of the leading vehicle, which ensures the constrained tracking control objective is fulfilled. Finally, the proposed algorithm is validated by detailed simulations.