Anti-disturbance adaptive cruise control method based on H∞ robust controller with optimized safe velocity and following time headway

To alleviate driver workload, many vehicles are now equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems. However, ACC performance can significantly deteriorate in real-world conditions due to disturbances such as sensor measurement errors, system uncertainties, and modeling errors. Therefore, an innovative anti-disturbance ACC method is proposed based on H-infinity robust controller with optimized safe velocity and following time headway to overcome the above problems. Initially, we analyze the longitudinal following characteristics that are undergoing disturbances and establish the ACC system model. Then, the optimization models for the safe velocity and the following time headway during ACC are designed. Subsequently, based on H-infinity theory, the design criterion of the H-infinity robust controller for ACC is established by utilizing the linear matrix inequality technique. Finally, two typical experiment scenarios are given for hardware-in-the-loop simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.