2-D Polynomial Approach to Control of Leader Following Vehicular Platoons

This paper formulates the problems of stabilization and asymptotic following in infnite platoons of vehicles within the 2-D polynomial framework, that is, the dynamics of the problem are described using a fraction of two bivariate polynomials. In contrast to some previous works, the platoon here assumes a leader (and an infnite number of followers), therefore the often used bilateral z-transform should not be used here since it assumes a doubly infnite vehicular strings. The unilateral z-transform seems better suited. However, it brings about the need to take the boundary conditions into consideration; among other, the leader vehicle comes into the scene. The necessary formalism is introduced in the paper and used to provide elegant alternative proofs of some well-known facts about the platooning problem.