The Application of Time Delay Control to an Intelligent Cruise Control System

This paper presents an application of Time Delay Control to an intelligent automotive cruise control system. In this system, a vehicle is equipped with a ranging sensor which measures the distance between a preceding car and itself. The relative distance between the two vehicles is the control output [the state] of the system and the dynamics of the leading car are treated as a disturbance. The performance of the Time Delay Control Method in this intelligent longitudinal cruise control system was evaluated using a one-fifth scale car model. Through simulations and experiments, the Time Delay Control technique is shown to be well suited for intelligent cruise controls because of its rapid estimation of system dynamics changes and ease of implementation.