Development of a rule based upper level control algorithm for a co-operative vehicle in automated highway system

In this paper, a combined lateral and longitudinal rule based upper level control algorithm of a cooperative vehicle is presented. The vehicle model that has the ability to communicate with the other vehicles (V2V) and the infrastructure (V2I) that is within the communication range is developed. A two tier control hierarchy (upper and lower) is designed to ensure the fully automated vehicle operation. The proposed upper level control algorithm consists of a finite state machine whereas the lower level controller consists of throttle, brake and steering controller. Since the control system architecture is designed to be hierarchical, the lower level controllers receive the commands from the higher level controller that defines the driving mode of the vehicle. Based on the simulation model driving modes of the vehicle are determined as: cruise control (CC), cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC), and lane change control (LCC). Moreover, different driving scenarios are also constructed in MATLAB/Simulink environment to highlight different potential conditions that might exist. Finally, simulation results for different modes of operation are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm.