Nonlinear ACC in Simulation and Measurement

In this paper an adaptive cruise control (ACC) of a convoy consisting of two passenger cars is designed and tested. For the ACC only on board sensors in the following vehicle are used, communication within the convoy or between the controlled vehicle and electronic systems on the roadside is not assumed. A laser scanner is applied for range measurements, derived from the complete vision data of the area in front of the car. Since the scanner provides the range only, a Kalman Filter is used to estimate the velocity and acceleration of the car. For controller design the concept of flat outputs in connection with the exact state linearization is applied. Moreover, the exact state linearization is combined with a sliding mode control. The control parameters are obtained by an optimization algorithm using optimal tracking formulation. The optimization also guarantees individual vehicle stability as well as string stability of the convoy. It is shown how the convoy is responding to disturbances resulting from initial errors or from velocity steps by the leading vehicle at lower speed in simulation and experiment.