Adaptive Predefined-Time Tracking Control for Vehicular Platoons With Finite-Time Global Prescribed Performance Independent of Initial Conditions

This paper is concerned with the finite-time global prescribed performance control (FnTGPPC) problem for vehicular platoons with modeling uncertainties and external disturbances. A shifting function is first employed to adjust the tracking error, and together with a novel performance function, an improved FnTGPPC method is proposed, with which both strict restrictions that the initial conditions within a predefined region and must be known in prior all can be removed simultaneously, that is, for any known/unknown initial conditions, the given FnTGPPC method ensures the tracking error tends to the prescribed region. A predefined-time control scheme under the sliding mode control framework is further designed, such that the platoon tracking errors can converge to a predetermined region within the predefined time while avoiding the singularity phenomenon and improving the convergence speed of the system. By constructing numerical simulations and comparisons, the validity of the given scheme is demonstrated at last.