On the Necessity of Symmetric Positional Coupling for String Stability

We consider a distributed system with identical agents, constant-spacing policy, and asymmetric bidirectional control, where the asymmetry is due to different controllers, which we describe by transfer functions. By applying the wave-transfer function approach, it is shown that if there are two integrators in the dynamics of agents, then the positional coupling must be symmetric; otherwise, the system is string unstable. The main advantage of the transfer function approach is that it allows us to analyze the bidirectional control with an arbitrary complex asymmetry in the controllers, for instance, the control with symmetric positional but asymmetric velocity couplings.