Distributed Adaptive Fixed-Time Robust Platoon Control for Fully Heterogeneous Vehicles

This article focuses on the distributed adaptive fixed-time platoon tracking problem for third-order fully heterogeneous nonlinear vehicles. The modified dynamics of each vehicle are constructed, and a practically fixed-time criterion is set up. Moreover, the singularity problem in the fixed-time and finite-time control is addressed well by designing new virtual signals and exploiting the inequality technique and power transformation scheme instead of the approximation method. The distributed nonlinear fixed-time tracking protocol is constructed by virtue of the recursive algorithm, and the design process is simplified by a tracking differentiator. In particular, the upper bound of the settling time has nothing to do with initial conditions. Further, the disturbances are tackled via robust <tex-math notation="LaTeX">H∞ </tex-math> control theory. Finally, simulation tests are contained to illustrate the performance of the proposed protocols.