COOPERATIVE ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL FOR IMPROVED MOBILITY AND SAFETY

Conventional Cruise Control (CCC) systems are present on most production vehicles today that simply hold a vehicle at a preset speed. This relieves the driver of this task, making the overall driving task easier, more enjoyable and less fatiguing. However, CCC systems are only useful for holding steady speeds and when the appropriate vehicle speed is not influenced by the actions of other vehicles. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) normally acts like a CCC, but has sensors that detect the range and relative speed of a vehicle ahead, matching speed with that vehicle when necessary. Generally the places where CCC and ACC do not work are the most challenging and dangerous driving situations where drivers have several tasks to manage at the same time. This is both unpleasant for the driver and dangerous. Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) systems address this limitation by using vehicle computers and digital vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication to hold a vehicle speed determined through a cooperative process between a vehicle and its neighbors. Experimental CACC systems have been simulated and implemented for automated highways for the support of platoons. This report discusses a CACC implemented as an emulator and installed as a user defined driver model in the traffic micro-simulation code VISSIM. The CACC emulator is designed to take over vehicle speed control when the vehicle enters a critical zone, which in this case is either a weave or a merge zone. VISSIM simulates a roadway with traffic and measures mobility and traffic density through the critical zone. Mobility of vehicles under control of the CACC emulator is compared with the mobility of vehicles under the control of VISSIM's driver model to demonstrate the effect of the CACC emulator on mobility. VISSIM is also used to record headway time through the critical zone as a measure of safety and following stability.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Full conference proceedings are available on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  ITS America

  1100 17th Street, NW, 12th Floor
  Washington, DC  United States  20036
• Authors:
  • MacNeille, P
  • Miller, R
• Conference:
  • At the Crossroads: Integrating Mobility Safety and Security. ITS America 2004, 14th Annual Meeting and Exposition
  • Location: San Antonio, Texas
  • Date: 2004-4-26 to 2004-4-28
• Publication Date: 2004

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 6p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Adaptive control; Cruise control; Driving; Microsimulation; Mobility; Safety; Speed; Speed control; Traffic; Vehicle to vehicle communications
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00976028
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 1 2004 12:00AM