Automotive Cruise Control Using Self-Tuning Regulator

This paper presents an automotive cruise control using self-tuning regulator. Automotive cruise controls are widely used today for their convenience, but as the vehicles incorporating this control becomes more numerous and diverse, load matching makes for problems. This is why the practical realization of a self-tuning system not requiring this matching is needed. We adopted a self-tuning approach using the recursive least-squares method to identify a vehicle model and the pole assignment to obtain the feedback gains. The reason for this adaptive control approach is that the designer can express the control specifications for the automotive cruise control system through pole assignment and thereby achieve a comfortable ride. Also, safety is a prerequisite for any automotive cruise control system, and with this adaptive control, the advantage is that vehicle parameter variation can be consistently monitored, allowing one to pinpoint any parameter vibration immediately and take control stability. We performed simulation and actual road tests to experimentally confirm self-tuning function. The results showed simultaneous realization of comfortable ride and compliance with the target vehicle speed.