Safe and Efficient Data-driven Connected Cruise Control

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel connected cruise control system for automated vehicles that enhances safety and reduces energy consumption by leveraging vehicle-to-vehicle communication and control barrier functions.

Contribution

It introduces a new control framework combining V2V data with safety filters to improve energy efficiency and safety in automated cruise control.

Findings

Energy consumption reduced by over 10% with V2V connectivity

Safety guarantees provided by control barrier functions

Effective response to traffic perturbations demonstrated

Abstract

In this paper, we design a safe and efficient cruise control for the connected automated vehicle with access to motion information from multiple vehicles ahead via vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. Position and velocity data collected from a chain of human-driven vehicles are systematically leveraged to design a connected cruise controller that smoothly responds to traffic perturbations while maximizing energy efficiency. A safety filter derived from a control barrier function provides the safety guarantee. We investigate the proposed control design's energy performance against real traffic datasets and quantify the safety filter's energy impact. It is shown that optimally utilizing V2V connectivity reduces energy consumption by more than 10\% compared to standard non-connected adaptive cruise control. Meanwhile, interesting interplays between safety filter and energy efficiency design are highlighted, revealing future research directions.