Simulation and Experimentation of Adaptive Cruise Control for Robot Platooning

Abstract

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) is a developing technology that optimizes inter-vehicle distance following than human drivers. Therefore, it has been regarded as one of the most efficient ways to increase traffic flow. In this paper, the algorithm for the control of vehicle platooning is investigated by simulating and experimented by using ACC on smart car platforms. In particular, we consider smart cars as platforms for mobile robots. The main goal is to automatically organize in a group at the same speed, at the same time maintaining a prespecified distance between itself and the one in front of it. For simplicity, we assume there is no wireless inter-vehicle communication, i.e. each vehicle measures, with the distance sensor (laser) the distance to the preceding vehicle. The numerical results and experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness and advantage of the method.