Longitudinal Control and a New Spacing Policy for Automated Transit Vehicles

Vehicle operating policies are developed and a longitudinal controller is designed to satisfy the stringent performance criteria of an Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) System operating under model-reference control. The complete control system is comprised of two parts, a model generator and a vehicle controller. The generation of a model velocity, based on ideal vehicle kinematics which include jerk and acceleration limiting, is examined with respect to the performance criteria required for safe operation. Using the phase-plane follower spacing policy, a vehicle controller is designed, evaluated, and implemented on an 8-bit microprocessor to control the vehicle through various maneuvers as simulated on an analog computer.