Adoption of Hybrid StateChart Principle in a Hierarchical Formation Architecture for Configurable Vehicles

Multi-Vehicle Formation is an important step towards an efficient transportation system. In this paper, a 3-tier hybrid formation control architecture for connected vehicles is introduced. This architecture adopts the principle of a Hybrid StateChart in deliberative decision making layer for trajectories assignment, followed by an intermediate executional control layer for vehicles’ trajectory tracking. Finally, a functional control layer for low-level feedback control. The architecture is simulated using a set of miniature vehicles for parallel straight-line vehicle formation trajectory separated with an offset in the lateral direction. Furthermore, an experimental point to point control test was conducted on a single miniature vehicle for verifying the intermediate control layer. Results from the performed simulated experiments illustrate the effectiveness and the high precision of the proposed control architecture in terms of the minimum error between the vehicle’s longitudinal positions for straight-line formation trajectories tracking. While the experimental test illustrate the effectiveness of the used intermediate control layer.