Stability analysis of a series of cars driving in adaptive cruise control mode

Abstract

The paper analysis the stability property of a series of cars following each other and functioning in adaptive cruise control mode. The adaptive cruise control mode controls the acceleration and deceleration of the car in order to maintain a set speed or to avoid a crash. Such series of cars can be mathematically represented by an equivalent system consisting of a set of masses, springs and dampers. Using this representation, the dynamic behaviour of the cars in a chain can be described by a matrix-vector differential equation of second-order. The paper analyses this model and formulates stability conditions.