Robust Model-based Predictive Control for a Cooperative Cycling Cyber-physical System

Abstract

Thanks to the massive adoption of bicycles in many countries, congestion issues over the cycling infrastructure are becoming common. When the congestion occurs, the natural formation of platoons brings benefits in terms of efficient use of cycling roads; however, it also brings concerns in terms of security of cyclists due to a lack of explicit coordination. In this context, previous solutions have proposed group cycling strategies supported by a platoon-based cyber-physical system, but the system encountered problems in terms of spacing control, in particular for large group sizes or highly variable group leader speeds. In this work, we propose a Robust Model-based Predictive Control (RMPC) with fuzzy intervals models strategy for the coordination of a cyber-physical system for bicycle platoons, in order to maintain a constant space policy under human-related physical limitations and human misinterpretation of the system’s acceleration signals. From the analysis made using simulations, we demonstrate the proposed RMPC mechanism outperforms the existing sliding surface control method employed in the group-cycling strategy.