Automatic Cruise Control of a Mechatronically Steered Vehicle Convoy

In this paper a convoy of two vehicles is considered where the second one is mechatronically operated. The convoy model used for simulation and controller design is derived by the method of multibody systems. A nonlinear cruise controller based on the concept of flat outputs in connection with exact state linearization is derived. A nonlinear local observer is also implemented. It is shown that such a system responds properly to arbitrary maneuvers performed by the driver of the leading vehicle.