Design of an Automobile Controller for Optimum Traffic Response to Stochastic Disturbances

摘要

The Communication and Control Systems Laboratory is investigating the feasibility of automating individual vehicles. Such an automatic system must consist of an automatic longitudinal control system and an automatic lateral or steering system. This paper is concerned with the effects of random disturbances upon a queue of automatically controlled vehicles and the design of the linear mode so as to optimize performance of the queue dynamics. Random disturbances induced by manually controlled vehicles, control system noise, and wind and road-induced forces are considered. An optimum linear controller for individual vehicles is found, which minimizes headway disturbance and limits the mean squared values of velocity disturbances in the queue. The procedure used in optimizing the response is based upon the Wiener-Hopf method of optimum design. In order to apply the Wiener-Hopf theory, integral measures of queue response, which relate variance of headway, relative velocity, velocity, and acceleration disturbances to the power density spectra of the disturbance sources have been determined. Tables of the integrals associated with these disturbances are tabulated. An example of the optimization of the linear controller based upon a representative disturbance power density spectrum is included. (Author)