An adaptive cruise control system for autonomous vehicles

An adaptive cruise control system with a longitudinal controller that follows a preceding vehicle in autonomous vehicles is proposed. The adaptive cruise control system in a test vehicle recognizes a preceding vehicle located in front of the test vehicle and drives the test vehicle with a safety distance to the preceding vehicle by controlling its accelerator and brake. Vehicle distance errors caused by preceding vehicle distances can be determined by the distance information obtained from the laser scanner installed on the front side of a succeeding vehicle. The acceleration control in a succeeding vehicle performs velocity control by transmitting APS (Acceleration Position Sensor) signals, which can be generated at the speed control unit artificially, to ECU (Electronic Control Unit). An adaptive cruise control system presented in this research is simulated with CARSIM and SIMULINK and its performance is also proved to be very practical after several experimental test on a real car.