People have long been interested in the idea of an automated convoy. Iraqi convoy operations are known to be dangerous; but even in the United States the idea of automating trucking is appealing.
In a convoy, the leader can be a manned or autonomous vehicle. The remaining vehicles are autonomous. Their job is to simply follow the vehicle in front of them.
One risk is that if the leader suddenly accelerates or brakes, there is a danger the followers will not be able to maintain their relative position. This disturbance or oscillation propagates down the "string" of vehicles, giving rise to the term "string stability".
Prof. Robertson, Feemster and ENS Henderson investigate how this problem can be alleviated using something called command shaping -- instead of flooring the accelerator or brake the leader smooths his transitions to ameliorate this issue. Here it is in practice (note the robots are covered with cardboard "hats" and reflective tags that enable our motion capture system to record the positions of the vehicles in real time).
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- www.usna.edu/WSE We use knowledge of mechanical, electrical and computer engineering to make machines "smart"! We offer courses in Robotics, Autonomous Vehicles, Feedback Control Systems, Computer Vision, Sensors and Computer Systems. We are one of the most popular majors at the US Naval Academy.