Experimental Validation of Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control Schemes Under the Presence of Time Delays

This paper considers the experimental validation of theoretical results for cooperative platooning using the PL-TOON platform. In particular, we study an information relaying algorithm that enables a chain of autonomous vehicles, when there is perfect communication, to navigate in a string stable fashion, that is, without amplifying disturbances as they propagate along the vehicle string. Using the aforementioned experimental platform, we verify that such an algorithm can improve the string stability characteristics of a set of autonomous agents traveling in a tight formation on tracks. However, we also verify that the presence of time delays in the communication is very detrimental to the collective behavior of the agents, confirming theoretical results establishing this. We compare the experimental results with the theoretical ones and simulations of them, which highlights the capabilities of the experimental platform used. We also discuss alternatives for improving the robustness of similar cooperative platooning algorithms.