Using front and back information for tight vehicle following maneuvers

During manual driving, most human drivers often use information about the speed and position of the preceding and following vehicles in order to adjust the position and speed of their vehicles. The purpose of this paper is to design an autonomous intelligent cruise control (AICC) which mimics this human driving behavior. The proposed AICC law uses relative speed and spacing information from the preceding and following vehicles in order to choose the proper control action for smooth vehicle following and for maintaining a desired intervehicle spacing specified by the driver. The vehicle stability and platoon stability (in the case of multiple vehicles) in both directions (backward and forward) are guaranteed by the proposed AICC law. Furthermore, platoon stability is guaranteed for a speed-dependent desired spacing (time headway approach) as well as for a constant desired spacing at all speeds