Beyond-Line-of-Sight Identification by Using Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication

In this paper, we investigate the identification of the configuration and the dynamics of connected vehicle systems, where wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communication is used to access the motion data of vehicles that are beyond the line of sight. In particular, we first construct a causality detector to determine whether the information received from distant vehicles is relevant to the motion of the receiving vehicle. Then, we design a link-length estimator to identify the number of vehicles between the broadcasting vehicle and the receiving vehicle, which is required for appropriately incorporating the received data into the vehicle control system. Finally, a dynamics identifier is proposed to approximate the nonlinear time-delayed dynamics of vehicle chains, which is needed for the controller design to achieve desired system-level performance. The presented analytical results are validated through numerical simulations using synthetic data and on-road experiments.