Robust optimal control and identification of adaptive cruise control systems in the presence of time delay and parameter uncertainties

This article deals with the robust optimal control and identification of uncertain adaptive cruise control systems. Both measurement delay and engine’s lag are investigated in system modeling and control design. The control structure consists of two steps. In the first step, by using a new approach, the uncertain parameters of longitudinal dynamics of each vehicle is identified. Afterwards, at the second step, by using the relative position and velocity measurement with respect to ahead vehicle, a robust control against size changing of platoon is presented to assure the internal stability, string stability, and safety of heterogeneous vehicular platoons. A cost function involving important metrics internal stability, maximum overshoot, and settling time is introduced, and the particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to find the optimal values of control parameters minimizing the cost function. It will be shown that the proposed robust controller guarantees the internal stability, string stability, and safety of adaptive cruise control systems in the presence of measurement and parasitic delays. Several simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.