Energy optimal Adaptive Cruise Control during following of other vehicles

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) automates longitudinal guidance of the vehicle. This paper presents a method to calculate energy optimal drive strategies when the longitudinal movement of the vehicle is constrained by another vehicle, i.e. when the ACC vehicle follows another slower vehicle. The A^* Algorithm is employed for optimization and is shown to yield the optimal solution due to a suitable heuristics. Energy optimal drive strategies are calculated for some ACC use cases and their benefit is illustrated with measurements from test tracks, on public roads as well as with simulation of traffic scenarios as encountered on public roads.