ABSTRACT
In this paper the control dynamics of a vehicle convoy consisting of two passenger cars is analyzed. The convoy model used for simulation and controller design is derived by the method of multibody systems. For adaptive cruise control design the concept of flat outputs in connection with the exact state linearization is introduced and compared to linear approaches. Data of the leading vehicle like velocity and acceleration required by the controller are obtained by a Kalman filter without communication. It is shown how the convoy is responding to disturbances due to the leading vehicle.
