Regulation layer controller design for automated highway systems

In [1], Varaiya outlines a fully automated highway system (AHS), which promises a threefold increase in traffic capacity. The core of this protocol to achieve a fully automated highway system is a four-layer hierarchical control architecture. Starting from the bottom, the layers are called the regulation, planning, link and network layers. In this paper, our emphasis is on the design of longitudinal control laws for the regulation layer operation. Longitudinal control laws are proposed for a vehicle to execute different maneuvers requested from its planning layer. The maneuvers include leader tracking target speed, platoon merge, platoon split, lane change, and follower spacing control. In particular, the novelty of the proposed follower spacing control law is that the controller uses the information not only from vehicles in front but also from vehicles behind. It is proven that, with the proposed approach, the platoon is theoretically stable and free of slinky-type effects.