SMART CARS ON SMART ROADS - PROBLEMS OF CONTROL

Proponents of Intelligent Vehicle / Highway System or IVHS see it as a new technology which will make a major change in highway transportation. Control, communication and computing technologies will be combined into an IVHS system that can significantly increase safety and highway capacity without building new roads. This paper outlines key features of one highway automated IVHS system, shows how core driver decisions are improved, proposes a basic IVHS control system architecture, and offers a design of some control subsystems. It also summarizes some experimental work. We hope that the paper will stimulate interest in IVHS among control engineers.