Nonlinear control for a convoy-like vehicle

This paper presents a nonlinear control law for a set of unconnected carts which are expected to move as a convoy-like vehicle. Applications of such control scheme can be found in highways where cars are desired to move at the same speed while controlling the distance between them, in automated flexible factories where set of mobile robots are required to follow a leader mobile robot and also in public transports programs where personalized vehicles are assumed to move in a convoy-like configuration. The control law presented in this paper is based on a previous work on feedback design for a train-like vehicle consisting of connected carts (see Canudas-de-Wit, NDoudi-Likoho & Micaelli, Conference on robotics and automation vol. 1 (pp. 14-19). New York: IEEE Press).