Robust design optimisation of adaptive cruise controller considering uncertainties of vehicle parameters and occupants

Abstract

Adaptive cruise control (ACC) considering vehicle performances becomes a core technology for autonomous vehicle to adjust the vehicle speed while maintaining a safe distance from preceding vehicles. Improvement of the vehicle performances has limitations by only designing ACC's control parameters or its strategies. Furthermore, uncertainties of vehicle parameters and vehicle occupants can affect the vehicle performances considerably. Therefore, this paper studies the total design process of ACC system considering the control and the vehicle parameters simultaneously and reflecting the uncertainties. Three cases of deterministic design optimisation (DDO) are performed to show the effectiveness of considering the vehicle parameters. Additionally, one case of robust design optimisation (RDO) is performed to demonstrate the importance of considering the uncertainties. Conclusively, by performing the RDO, the vehicle performances are improved, and especially mean of fuel efficiency is increased and the standard deviation of the fuel efficiency is decreased. Moreover, enhancement and robustness of the product's performance are expected by implementing this design process to the development of control system with structural discipline at the concept design stage.