An Experimental Investigation of a CW/CA System for Automobiles

CW/CA (Collision Warning /Collision Avoidance) Systems have been an active research and development area as interests and demands for the advanced vehicle increase. A CW/CA ‘Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation (HiLS)’ system has been designed and used to test a CW/CA algorithm, radar sensors, and warning displays under realistic operating conditions in the laboratory. A CW/CA algorithm has two parts. One is a distance decision algorithm that determines the critical warning and braking distance and the other is a brake control algorithm for collision avoidance. The CW/CA HiLS system consists of a controller in which a DSP chip is installed, a preceding vehicle simulator, a radar sensor and a warning display. The controller calculates velocities of the preceding and following vehicles, relative distance and relative velocity of the vehicles using vehicle simulation models. The relative distance and velocity are applied to the vehicle simulator that is controlled by a DC motor. The relative distance of the vehicle simulator is measured by the radar sensor and is fed back into the controller. Finally, the controller gives warnings and applies the brakes according to the CW/CA algorithm.