Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

1. INTRODUCTION

Everyday the media brings us the horrible news on road accidents. Once a
report said that the damaged property and other costs may equal 3 % of the
world’s gross domestic product. The concept of assisting driver in longitudinal
vehicle control to avoid collisions has been a major focal point of research at
many automobile companies and research organizations. The idea of driver
assistance was started with the ‘cruise control devices’ first appeared in 1970’s
in USA. When switched on, this device takes up the task of the task of
accelerating or braking to maintain a constant speed. But it could not consider
the other vehicles on the road.

An ‘Adaptive Cruise Control’ (ACC) system developed as the next

generation assisted the driver to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front.
This system is now available only in some luxury cars like Mercedes S-class,
Jaguar and Volvo trucks the U.S. Department of transportation and Japan’s
ACAHSR have started developing ‘Intelligent Vehicles’ that can communicate
with each other with the help of a system called ‘Co operative Adaptive Cruise
Control’ .this paper addresses the concept of Adaptive Cruise Control and its
improved versions.

Dept. of  AEI 1 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

2. ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL (ACC)

2.1 PRINCIPLE OF ACC

ACC works by detecting the distance and speed of the vehicles ahead by
using either a Lidar system or a Radar system [1, 2].The time taken by the
transmission and reception is the key of the distance measurement while the
shift in frequency of the reflected beam by Doppler Effect is measured to know
the speed. According to this, the brake and throttle controls are done to keep the
vehicle the vehicle in a safe position with respect to the other. These systems are
characterized by a moderately low level of brake and throttle authority. These
are predominantly designed for highway applications with rather homogenous
traffic behavior. The second generation of ACC is the Stop and Go Cruise
Control (SACC) [2] whose objective is to offer the customer longitudinal
support on cruise control at lower speeds down to zero velocity [3]. The SACC
can help a driver in situations where all lanes are occupied by vehicles or where
it is not possible to set a constant speed or in a frequently stopped and congested
traffic [2]. There is a clear distinction between ACC and SACC with respect to
stationary targets. The ACC philosophy is that it will be operated in well
structured roads with an orderly traffic flow with speed of vehicles around
40km/hour [3]. While SACC system should be able to deal with stationary
targets because within its area of operation the system will encounter such
objects very frequently.

2.2 CONSTITUENTS OF AN ACC SYSTEM:

1. A sensor (LIDAR or RADAR) usually kept behind the grill of the vehicle to
obtain the information regarding the vehicle ahead. The relevant target data may
be velocity, distance, angular position and lateral acceleration.

Dept. of  AEI 2 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

2. Longitudinal controller which receives the sensor data and process it to

generate the commands to the actuators of brakes throttle or gear box using
Control Area Network (CAN) of the vehicle.

3. SENSOR OPTIONS:

Currently four means of object detection are technically feasible and

applicable in a vehicle environment [2]. They are
1. RADAR
2. LIDAR
3. VISION SENSORS
4. ULTRASONIC SENSOR

The first ACC system used LIDAR sensor.

3.1 LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging)

The first acc system introduced by Toyota used this method. By measuring
the beat frequency difference between a Frequency Modulated Continuous light
Wave (FMCW) and its reflection [3].

Fig 1.Range estimation using FMCW-LIDAR

Dept. of  AEI 3 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

A company named Vorad Technologies has developed a system which

measured up to one hundred meters. A low powered, high frequency modulated
laser diode was used to generate the light signal.

Most of the current acc systems are based on 77GHz RADAR sensors.
The RADAR systems have the great advantage that the relative velocity can be
measured directly, and the performance is not affected by heavy rain and fog.
LIDAR system is of low cost and provides good angular resolution although
these weather conditions restrict its use within a 30 to 40 meters range.

3.2 RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging):

RADAR is an electromagnetic system for the detection and location of

reflecting objects like air crafts, ships, space crafts or vehicles. It is operated by
radiating energy into space and detecting the echo signal reflected from an
object (target) the reflected energy is not only indicative of the presence but on
comparison with the transmitted signal, other information of the target can be
obtained. The currently used ‘Pulse Doppler RADAR’ uses the principle of
‘Doppler effect’ in determining the velocity of the target [5].

3.2.1 PULSE DOPPLER RADAR:

The block diagram of pulse Doppler radar is as shown in figure.2.

The continuous wave oscillator produces the signal to be transmitted and

it is pulse modulated and power amplified. The ‘duplexer’ is a switching device
which is fast-acting to switch the single antenna from transmitter to receiver and
back. The duplexer is a gas-discharge device called TR-switch. The high power
pulse from transmitter causes the device to breakdown and to protect the

Dept. of  AEI 4 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

receiver. On reception, duplexer directs the echo signal to the receiver. The
detector demodulates the received signal and the Doppler filter removes the
noise and outputs the frequency shift ‘fd’.

Fig2. Block diagram of pulse Doppler radar

3.2.2 EFFECT OF DOPPLER SHIFT:

The transmitter generates a continuous sinusoidal oscillation at

frequency ‘ft’which is then radiated by the antenna. On reflection by a moving
object, the transmitted signal is shifted by the Doppler Effect by ‘fd’.

If the range to the target is ‘R’, total number of wavelength is ‘λ’ in the two
way- path is given by,
n = 2R/ λ

Dept. of  AEI 5 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

The phase change corresponding to each λ =2π

So total phase change, p=2n П
=2(2R/ λ) π
So, if target moves, ‘R’ changes and hence ‘φ’ also changes.

Now, the rate of change of phase, or the ‘angular frequency’ is

W=dφ/dt =4 π (df/dt)/ λ

Let Vr be the linear velocity, called as ‘radial velocity’

Wd = 4 πVr/ λ =2πfd.

Fd=2Vr / λ
But λ = ft, the transmitted velocity.
Fd= (2c Vr)/ ft
So by measuring the shift, Vr is found. The ‘plus’ sign indicates that the
target and the transmitter are closing in. i.e. if the target is near, the echoed
signal will have larger frequency.

3.2.3 RADAR ANTENNA SCHEMES:

Radar systems employ a variety of sensing and processing methods to

determine the position and speed of vehicles ahead. Two such important
schemes are:

1. mechanically steered antenna

2. electronically steered antenna

1. Mechanically steered antenna:

Dept. of  AEI 6 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

A parabolic reflector is used as mechanically steered antenna. The

parabolic surface is illuminated by the source of energy placed at the focus of
the parabola. Rotating about its axis, a circular parabola is formed. A
symmetrical beam can be thus obtained. The rays originating from focus are
reflected parallel to the axis of parabola. [fig (3).]

Fig 3.Parabolic reflector antenna

2. Electronically steered phased array radar antenna

A phased array is a directive antenna made up of a number of individual
antennas, or radiating elements. The radiation pattern is determined by the
amplitude and phase of current at each of its elements. It has the advantage of
being able to have its beam electronically steered in angles by changing phase
of current at each element. The beam of a large fixed phased array antenna is
therefore can be rapidly steered from one direction to another without
mechanical positioning [1, 5].

Consider the following figure with ‘N elements placed (equally

separated) with a distance‘d’ apart. Suppose they have uniform response to
signals from all directions. Element ‘1’ is taken as reference with zero phase.

Dept. of  AEI 7 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

Fig 4. Phased array elements (example: reception of the beams)

From simple geometry, we can get difference between path lengths of

beam1 and that of beam2 is x = d sinθ, where ‘θ’ is the angle of incidence of
the beams. This gives phase difference between adjacent elements as Φ= 2π (d
sinθ)/ λ, where ‘λ’ is the wave length of the signal. But if the current through a
ferro electric element is changed, the dielectric constant ‘ε’ is changed since
electron density is changed, and for an electromagnetic radiation,
Φ = 2πx / λ
=2πxf/v,
here the velocity v = f λ
= 1/ (√μ ε)
Hence Φ=2πxf (√μ ε).

So if ‘ε’ is changed ‘Φ’ also changes and inserting ‘N’ phase shifting
elements to steer the beam, we can obtain an electronically steered beam.

Dept. of  AEI 8 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

Regardless of the scanning mechanism the radars typically operate in the

millimeter wave region at 76-77 GHz.

The system should be mounted inside the front grille of the car as shown
in figure (5). So its size is to be small. A typical radar produced by Delphi-Delco
Electronic systems is having the size of two stacked paper back books(14x7x10
cm)[1].

3.3 FUSION SENSOR

The new sensor system introduced by Fujitsu Ten Ltd. and Honda through
their PATH program includes millimeter wave radar linked to a 640x480 pixel
stereo camera with a 40 degree viewing angle. These two parts work together to
track the car from the non-moving objects. While RADAR target is the car’s
rear bumper, the stereo camera is constantly captures all objects in its field of
view.

Dept. of  AEI 9 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

Fig5. A prototype of a car with fusion sensor arrangement

Fig 6.Block diagram of sensing and controlling process

The image processor measures the distances to the objects through

triangulation method. This method includes an algorithm based on the detection
of the vertical edges and distance. Incorporating both the 16-degree field of
view of radar and 40-degree field of view of camera enhances the performance
in tight curves [4].

4. SPACE OF MANEUVERABILITY AND STOPPING

DISTANCE

Dept. of  AEI 10 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

The space of maneuverability is the space required by the driver to

maneuver a vehicle. An average driver uses larger sideways acceleration while
vehicle speed is low. If the curve radius of a possible trajectory is ‘r’ for a given
velocity ‘v’ and sideways acceleration ‘ay’ ,then r= / ay [2].so to get the
required ‘r’ ,when ‘v’ is low, ‘ay’ is also to be low correspondingly. The
stopping distance is given by, Ds = .5 u /ax + td u, where ‘u’ is the initial speed
‘td’ is the time taken by the system to receive and process the sensor data and
‘ax’ is the acceleration of the vehicle .the figure shows the detection of edges of
the preceding vehicles.

Fig 7.Detection of vehicle edges by the fusion sensor

5. CONTROLLER

The controller translates the situation into appropriate actions through

brake and pedal and throttle control actions.

Depending on the present traffic situation, two types of controls are possible.

1. Speed control
2. Headway control

Dept. of  AEI 11 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

If there is no vehicle presently in front, then the speed is controlled

about a set point just as in conventional cruise control. But in order to keep a
safe distance between the vehicle s, the headway control is required.

5.1ARTIFICIAL COGNITION

The conversion of raw information from sensors to control actions by the

two steps:-

1. Analyzing the traffic conditions

2. Deciding on a particular situation

The controller translates the desired situation into appropriate control

action through brake and throttle actuation.[2]. The controller concept is
simplified in the flow-diagram:

Fig 8.Flow diagram of controlling process

5.2. EXAMPLE OF ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROLLER

(MOTOROLA ACC)

Dept. of  AEI 12 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

The Motorola ACC constitutes a DSP module having MGT5200 which

provides a multiply-accumulator. The sensor data such as Radar information,
that from camera and an IR sensor are processed in it, to generate the input data
for the controller modules like HC12 and MPC565.[6].

Fig9. Motorola ACC

5.2.1 MPC565

It is a throttle controller or an engine speed controller. It consists of

the following features

1. SRAM (1MB to10 MB)

2. FLASH 1MB

Dept. of  AEI 13 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

3. EEPROM (4KB to 32 KB)

4. Real time clock
5. 4 x UART interfaces
6. 3 X CAN interfaces
7. 64-bit floating point unit.

The MPC 565 can be programmed to generate the control signals

according to the sensor data. ‘The Phycore-MPC 565 developers’ are available
to program and develop the desired controller.
The throttle valve is actuated and the air intake is controlled so the
requirement of fuel for the right proportion with the air also increases. So more
fuel is injected and engine speed is changed.

5.2.2 HC12
The HC12 is a breaking controller which receives data from the wheel
speed sensors and from the DSP module. It generates the braking control signal.

5.2.3 CAN (Control Area Network) BUS

CAN BUS is the network established between microcontrollers. It is a2-
wire, half-duplex, high speed network for high speed high speed applications
with short messages. It can theoretically link up to 2032 devices on a network.
But today the practical limit is 110 devices. It offers high speed communication
rate up to 1Mbits per second and allows real time control. [7].

Each module in the ACC connected to the CAN is called ‘a node’. All are
acting as transceivers. The CAN bus carries data to and from all nodes and
provides quicker control transfer to each module.

The actuator used for throttle control is a solenoid actuator. The signal
through the coil can push or pull the plunger.

Dept. of  AEI 14 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

6. CO OPERATIVE ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL

[CACC]

Though conventional ACC and SACC are still expensive novelties, the
next generation called Cooperative ACC is already being tested. While ACC can
respond to the difference between its own behavior and that of the preceding
vehicle, the CACC system allows the vehicles to communicate and to work
together to avoid collision.[2,4].
Partners of Advanced Transit Highways (PATH) –a program of
California Department of Transportation and University of California with
companies like Honda conducted an experiment in which three test vehicles
used a communication protocol in which the lead car can broadcast information
about its speed, acceleration ,breaking capacity to the rest of the groups in every
20ms.

PATH is dedicated to develop systems that allow cars to set up platoons of

vehicles in which the cars communicate with each other by exchanging signals
using protocols like Bluetooth.

6.1. MAIN POSTULATIONS ABOUT CACC:

1. In CACC mode, the preceding vehicles can communicate actively with the
following vehicles so that their speed can be coordinated with each other.
2. Because communication is quicker, more reliable and responsive compared
to autonomous sensing as in ACC.
3. Because braking rates, breaking capacity and other important information
about the vehicles can be exchanged, safer and closer vehicle traffic is
possible.

Dept. of  AEI 15 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

Fig 10.Under CACC, both the leading and following vehicles are
electronically “tied” to a virtual reference vehicle, as well as to each other.

7. ADVANTAGES

1. The driver is relieved from the task of careful acceleration, deceleration and
braking in congested traffics.
2. A highly responsive traffic system that adjusts itself to avoid accidents can
be developed.
3. Since the breaking and acceleration are done in a systematic way, the fuel
efficiency of the vehicle is increased.

DISADVANTAGES

1. A cheap version is not yet realized.

2. A high market penetration is required if a society of intelligent vehicles is to

be formed.

3. Encourages the driver to become careless. It can lead to severe accidents if

the system is malfunctioning.

Dept. of  AEI 16 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

4. The ACC systems yet evolved enable vehicles to cooperate with the other
vehicles and hence do not respond directly to the traffic signals.

8. CONCLUSION

The accidents caused by automobiles are injuring lakhs of people every

year. The safety measures starting from air bags and seat belts have now reached
to ACC, SACC and CACC systems. The researchers of Intelligent Vehicles
Initiative in USA and the Ertico program of Europe are working on technologies
that may ultimately lead to vehicles that are wrapped in a cocoon of sensors
with a 360 –degree view of their surroundings. It will probably take decades,
but car accidents may eventually become as rare as plane accidents are now,
even though the road laws will have to be changed, upto an extent since the non-
human part of the vehicle controlling will become predominant.

Dept. of  AEI 17 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

9. REFERENCES

1. Willie D. Jones, “Keeping cars from crashing.” , IEEE Spectrum September

2001.

2. P.Venhovens, K. Naab and B. Adiprasto, “Stop And Go Cruise Control”,

International Journal of Automotive Technology, Vol.1, No.2, 2000.

3. Martin D. Adams, “Co axial range Measurement-Current trends for Mobile

robotic Applications”, IEEE Sensors journal, Vol.2, no.1 Feb.2002.

4. http:// path.Berkeley.edu

5. Merril I.Skolnik, “Introduction To RADAR Systems.”Tata Mc Grawhill

edition 2001.

6. http://motorola /semiconductor.com

Dept. of  AEI 18 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

7. http://www.computer-solutions.co.uk

Dept. of  AEI 19 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

ABSTRACT

The concept of assisting driver in the task of longitudinal vehicle control

is known as cruise control. Starting from the cruise control devices of the
seventies and eighties, now the technology has reached cooperative adaptive
cruise control. This paper will address the basic concept of adaptive cruise
control and the requirement to realize its improved versions including stop and
go adaptive cruise control and cooperative adaptive cruise control. The
conventional cruise control was capable only to maintain a set speed by
accelerating or decelerating the vehicle. Adaptive cruise control devices are
capable of assisting the driver to keep a safe distance from the preceding vehicle
by controlling the engine throttle and brake according to the sensor data about
the vehicle. Most of the systems use RADAR as the sensor .a few use LIDAR
also. Controller includes the digital signal processing modules and
microcontroller chips specially designed for actuating throttle and brake. The
stop and go cruise control is for the slow and congested traffic of the cities
where the traffic may be frequently stopped. Cooperative controllers are not yet
released but postulations are already there. This paper includes a brief theory of
pulse Doppler radar and FM-CW LIDAR used as sensors and the basic concept
of the controller.

Dept. of  AEI 20 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION
2. PRINCIPLE OF ACC
2.1 PRINCIPLE OF ACC
2.2 CONSTITUENTS OF AN ACC SYSTEM
3. SENSOR OPTIONS
3.1 LIDAR
3.2 RADAR
3.2.1 PULSE DOPPLER RADAR
3.2.2 EFFECT OF DOPPLER SHIFT
3.2.3 RADAR ANTENNA SCHEMES
3.3 FUSION SENSOR

4. SPACE OF MANEUVERABILITY AND STOPPING DISTANCE:

5. CONTROLLER
5.1ARTIFICIAL COGNITION
5.2. EXAMPLE OF ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROLLER

6. CO OPERATIVE ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL [CACC]

6.1. MAIN POSTULATIONS ABOUT CACC

7. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

8. CONCLUSION
9. REFERENCES

Dept. of  AEI 21 MESCE, Kuttippuram
Cruise Control Devices Seminar Report ‘03

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I extend my sincere gratitude towards Prof. P.Sukumaran Head of

Department for giving us his invaluable knowledge and wonderful technical
guidance

I express my thanks to Mr. Muhammed Kutty our group tutor and also
to our staff advisor Ms. Biji Paul and Mr. Noushad V.M for their kind
co-operation and guidance for preparing and presenting this seminar.

I also thank all the other faculty members of AEI department and my
friends for their help and support.

Dept. of  AEI 22 MESCE, Kuttippuram