Design of switching strategy for Adaptive Cruise Control under string stability constraints

A new switching strategy is proposed in the design of an Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system operating in a platooning traffic configuration. The proposed control system enjoys shorter elapsed time than conventional methods while still being able to maintain a safe distance between vehicles during transient process. During the headway control mode of an ACC controller, a constant deceleration is maintained by the following vehicle when approaching the preceding one. In addition, string stability of a platoon of vehicles equipped with such an ACC controller has been taken into consideration and parameter constraints of the controllers are derived to mitigate steady state error propagation. A longitudinal 1-D vehicle model of a passenger car is used for simulation purposes and the results from the proposed design are verified.