A real-time multi-vehicle simulator for longitudinal controller design

This paper presents a new multi-vehicle simulator for platoon simulation. The main new feature of the developed simulator is a network structure for the real-time simulation of multiple vehicles, each with a detailed powertrain and engine model. It has a small initial delay, which is determined by the number of connected PCs, but the actual simulation is performed and displayed in real-time after this initial and one-time delay. Several longitudinal controllers, including a PID controller with gain scheduling, an adaptive controller, and a fuzzy controller, are also implemented in the simulator. Various system parameters can be modified interactively in the simulator screen, which is very useful for simulating a platoon of heterogeneous vehicles, in which vehicles with different dynamics and different longitudinal controllers may be involved. The simulator provides an excellent tool to develop vehicle longitudinal controllers and to study platoon behaviors. The developed simulator is also effective in testing the effects of nonlinearities neglected in the controller design phase, such as actuator delays and gear shifting schedule.