Cruise control with collision avoidance for cars via sliding modes

Longitudinal control of platoons of vehicles is appropriate to improve the traffic capacity of road networks while maintaining safety distances between vehicles. This paper investigate the possibility of reducing the number of accidents involving pedestrians or other vulnerable road users, like cyclists and motorcyclists, by providing the control systems of the vehicles of the platoon with some collision detection and avoidance capability. The driver assistance system is realized by means of vehicle supervisors, which, on the basis of the data acquired by the sensors, make the decision on which is the appropriate current control mode for each controlled vehicle, and manage the switches among low-level controllers