Double-Mode vehicular Electronic Throttle for driver assistance systems

Normally used electronic assistant throttle actuators for R&D of vehicle longitudinal driver assistance systems, such as ACC, may conflict with car´s primary throttle system and have inconvenience in switch between ACC control and driver operating. In order to overcome the disadvantages abovementioned, this paper addresses the design, control and experiments of a double-mode electronic throttle (DMET) which can be operated by ACC and driver synchronously. First, based on the existing electronic throttle system the structure of the DMET is designed. Then, focusing on the time delay of the DMET, a gain-adaptive Smith predictor based on a identified transfer function is set to get better system dynamic performance. Furthermore, in order to achieve seamless switch between ACC control mode and driver operating mode, a dead zone restriction is introduced to the controller. Finally, the system performance in tracking ACC desired throttle angle and switching between two operating modes is confirmed by series of experiments.