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This paper presents a distributed model predictive control algorithm to solve the cruise control problem of a heterogeneous platoon. Each following vehicle in the platoon can use the communication equipment to receive the information of the leading vehicle and its preceding adjacent one. The vehicles in the platoon are dynamically decoupled and have different dynamic parameters. Each vehicle solves a local optimal control problem independently. The cost function of each vehicle’s local optimal control algorithm is designed with traceability as the control objective, and its asymptotic stability is guaranteed by using the terminal constraint method. In addition, the timestamps of all vehicles in the platoon are synchronous, which means that in each sampling period, a specific vehicle in the platoon cannot obtain the solution results of other vehicles’ local optimal control problems at the current sampling moment. Under this restriction, the constraints that each vehicle needs to meet to realize the platoon’s string stability are also designed. Finally, the simulation results show the effectiveness of the algorithm.

A lack of empirical evidence for the microbial regulation of ecosystem processes, including carbon (C) degradation, hinders our ability to develop a framework to directly incorporate the genetic composition of microbial communities in the enzyme-driven Earth system models. Herein we evaluated the linkage between microbial functional genes and extracellular enzyme activity in soil samples collected across three geographical regions of Australia. We found a strong relationship between different functional genes and their corresponding enzyme activities. This relationship was maintained after considering microbial community structure, total C and soil pH using structural equation modelling. Results showed that the variations in the activity of enzymes involved in C degradation were predicted by the functional gene abundance of the soil microbial community (R2>0.90 in all cases). Our findings provide a strong framework for improved predictions on soil C dynamics that could be achieved by adopting a gene-centric approach incorporating the abundance of functional genes into process models.

A lack of empirical evidence for the microbial regulation of ecosystem processes, including carbon (C) degradation, hinders our ability to develop a framework to directly incorporate the genetic composition of microbial communities in the enzyme-driven Earth system models. Herein we evaluated the linkage between microbial functional genes and extracellular enzyme activity in soil samples collected across three geographical regions of Australia. We found a strong relationship between different functional genes and their corresponding enzyme activities. This relationship was maintained after considering microbial community structure, total C and soil pH using structural equation modelling. Results showed that the variations in the activity of enzymes involved in C degradation were predicted by the functional gene abundance of the soil microbial community (R2>0.90 in all cases). Our findings provide a strong framework for improved predictions on soil C dynamics that could be achieved by adopting a gene-centric approach incorporating the abundance of functional genes into process models.