1

Cruise Control System in Vehicle

Karen Lie, Calvin College
control system is disengaged, so the speed control of the car is taken over by the driver in adjusting the gas pedal and the brake. Furthermore, the speed for the cruise control can be set by pressing the gas pedal to accelerate the car to the desired speed, and then hitting the set button. Also, when the cruise control is engaged, the gas pedal overrides the set speed from the cruise control, so the car accelerates as long as the gas pedal is pressed. Finally, the feedback signal from the measured speed of the car is taken into account of the input of the curse control system. This input is closely related to the control system of the cruise control. The detailed of the feedback input is presented under the control system of cruise control later. 2) Processor of Cruise Control The processor of a cruise control is a control system designed to obtain the speed set by the driver. It plays an important role in the cruise control system. The processor is integrated with electronic components to a system transfer function, which is discussed under the control system of cruise control in detail. 3) Output of Cruise Control The output of the cruise control is the throttle position. The actual speed of the car varies corresponding to different throttle position, as the throttle valve limiting how much air the engines takes in. A different air-to-fuel ratio in the combustion process affects the power and the speed of the engine, and this eventually leads to the change of the car speed. B. Mechanism of Cruise Control An overview of the relationship between different components of cruise control system is shown in Fig. 1. The processor of the cruise control system is shown as the Cruise Control Computer in the figure. The process of the cruise control system in a vehicle is: First, the driver sets the desired speed of the car by turning on the cruise control at the desired speed that the car is traveling at and hit the set button. An alternate way to set the desired speed of the car is by tapping the set/accel button to increase the speed of the car or by tapping the coast button to decrease the speed of the car. Second, the processor of the system gets the input signal, and then sends the output signal to the actuator. Third, the actuator adjusts the throttle position. Finally, the changes in the throttle position would leads to the changes in the speed of the car traveling. Also, the actual speed of the car is measured by a sensor and sent to the processor. The process of sending the current speed of the car continues for the processor to maintain the desired speed, as long as the cruise control is engaged [1]. This process is explained in details in terms of control system concepts later.

Abstract The cruise control system in a vehicle is studied in details. First, control concepts in cruise control system are investigated. Second, simplified cruise control models are developed and simulated. Third, an introduction to adaptive cruise control system is presented. Fourth, modeling of adaptive cruise control system in a traffic simulation is carried. Finally, the future development of the advanced adaptive cruise control system is presented. Index TermsCruise Control, Control System, Vehicle, Modeling, Simulation

I. INTRODUCTION ruise control system has become a common feature in automobiles nowadays. Instead of having the driver frequently checking the speedometer and adjusting pressure on the gas pedal or the brake, cruise control system control the speed of the car by maintaining the constant speed set by the driver. Therefore, cruise control system can help reduce drivers fatigue in driving a long road trip. This paper presents the control system behind the cruise control.

II. BACKGROUND Before getting into to the control system concepts of cruise control, the components and the basic mechanism of the cruise control system in a vehicle are summarized. A. Components of Cruise Control Cruise control system can be divided in to three main parts, which are the input, the processor, and the output. The input of the system includes the setting buttons on the steering wheel, gas pedal, brake, clutch and the feedback signal of the cruise control. The processor of the system is to control the speed of the car by utilizing the control system theory. The output is the throttle position, which is corresponding to the actual speed of the car. 1) Input of Cruise Control There are usually three to five setting buttons on the steering wheels for the input to the cruise control system. The buttons are on/off, set/accel, resume, and coast. The on button turns on the cruise control function. The off button turns off the cruise control function. The set/accel button is to set the speed of the car to the current speed that the car is driving at. Also, by tapping the set/accel button once can increase the speed of the car by 1mph and so forth. The resume button is to set the speed of the car back to the last maintained speed, which is the speed right before the cruise control is disengaged. The coast button is to decrease the speed of the car. The brake and the clutch are the other inputs to the cruise control system. When the pedal is pressed, the cruise
K. Lie is a student at the Engineering Department, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 (email: hlie46@calvin.edu).

where v is the velocity of the car, b is the friction of the car and u is the force from the engine. Then, by applying Laplace Transform theorem, Eq. (1) becomes Eq. (2).
m s V( s ) + b V( s ) U( s )

(2)

After rearranging Eq. (2), the transfer function of the openlooped cruise control system is obtained, as is (3).
Y( s ) 1 U( s ) m s + b where Y(s) is V(s) in Eq. (2).

(3)

Cruise Control System in a vehicle is a closed-loop control system. A simplified model of the cruise control system is developed, and its block diagram is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 1. Relationship between different components in cruise control system

The throttle valve connects to the actuator and the gas pedal by cables, so the throttle position can be adjusted by the actuator and the gas pedal. Some actuators are powered by the engine vacuum to close and open the throttle. The pulse frequency corresponding to the speed of the car is sent to the vacuum controlled diaphragm conned to the accelerator, and it regulates the amount of the vacuum the diagram received [2]. III. CONTROL SYSTEM IN CONVENTIONAL CRUISE
CONTROL

Fig 3. Block Diagram of Cruise Control System in a Car

C. Design Specification Since it is critical for a cruise control system to obtain the desired speed in a short time without overshoot, the design specification is determined: Rise time < 5 sec Overshoot < 10% Steady-state error < 2% D. Assumption For the simplified cruise control model, the mass, the friction constant and the force from the engine of the car is assumed: m = 1000kg b = 50 N*sec/m u = 500 N E. Modeling and Simulation Models of cruise control system are developed from the open-loop system to the closed-loop system. Then, models with PI controller are further developed in terms of different control constants. Also, simulations of different models are presented and discussed. 1) Open-loop System The cruise control system without controller and feedback is implemented on the Simulink, as shown in Fig. 4. In other words, the control system for the speed of the car takes no consideration of the actual speed of the car traveling.

A. Design Consideration A cruise control system needs to accelerate to the desired speed in a short time without overshooting the speed of the car. Also, it needs to maintain the speed with little deviation, when the car is driving up or down a steep hill. B. Physical Model First, the inertia of the wheels of the car is neglected. Second, the friction of the car is assumed to be the friction caused by the motion of the car. Then, a physical model of the cruise control system is illustrated as shown in Fig. 2 [3]. The mass, m, is indicated as the mass of a car.

Fig. 2. Free-body diagram of a car

By using Newtons second law of motion, a differential equation of the cruise control model can be obtained, as in (1). dv m + b v ( t) u ( t) (1) dt

Fig. 4 Cruise control System without feedback and controller

The response of the open-loop system to a step input is shown in Fig. 5.

First, only the proportional control (Kp) in the controller is considered. The closed-loop transfer function of the cruise control system with a proportional control is obtained, as in (5). (5) Y( s ) Kp U( s ) m s + ( b + Kp ) The proportional control in the controller is turned on and is set to 100. The response of the system with Kp = 100 is shown in Fig. 9. The steady state error of the system with the proportional control is reduced from 98% to 34%. Also, the settling time of the system is decreased.
Fig. 5. Response of the open-loop of cruise control

The steady state error is about 98%. A feedback loop is needed to add to the system to bring the response back to the desired speed. 2) Closed-loop System The cruise control system with a unity feedback loop is implemented as shown in Fig. 6. The response of the system to a step input is shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 9. Response of the system with Kp=100 Fig. 6. Cruise control system with feedback

Second, both the proportional control (Kp) and the integral control (Ki) in the controller are considered in the cruise control model. The closed-loop transfer function of the cruise control system with the PI controller is obtained, as in (6). (6) Y( s ) ( Kp s + Ki)
U( s )

The integral control in the controller is turned on and is set to 10. The response of the system with Ki = 10 and Kp= 100 to a unit step input is shown in Fig. 10. The steady-state error of the system is eliminated by adding the integral time control, but overshoot of the response is introduced. Also, the response time of the system is shortened.
Fig. 7. Response of the closed-loop system

m s + ( b + Kp ) s + Ki

The steady state error of the closed-loop system is even slightly larger than that of the open-loop system as in Fig. 5, because the feedback-loop reduces the accuracy of the response. 3) PI Controller A PI controller is added to the cruise control system to achieve the desired response of the system. Therefore, a PI controller is added to the model of cruise control system, as shown in Fig. 8.
Fig. 10. Response of the system with Kp =100 and Ki =10

Fig. 8. Cruise control system with controller

Third, the proportional control and the integral control of the controller are adjusted to meet the design specifications of the cruise control model.

The first design specification of the cruise control system is to have the rise time less than 5 second. Therefore, the rise time of the cruise control model needs to decrease, such that the cruise control system can reach the desired speed within a few seconds. By increasing the proportional gain constant on the controller from 100 to 500, the rise time of the system is decreased as shown in Fig. 11.

40 meets all the design specifications of the cruise control system.

Fig. 13. Response of the system with Kp = 800 and Ki = 40

Since the controller with the proportional control and the time integral control is able to achieve the desired response of the system, a derivative control is not necessary to add to the model to keep the simplicity of the controller.
Fig. 11. Response of the system with Kp= 500 and Ti = 10

The proportional gain is further increased to 800, so the rise time is decreased to about 3.5 seconds, as shown in Fig 12. Therefore, the rise time for the cruise control system with Kp = 800 and Ki = 10 meets the design specification.

4) Effect of the Weight of the Car to Cruise Control System Cruise control system usually comes with the vehicle in two ways. One way is that the vehicle is equipped with the cruise control system as one of the features in the vehicle as a whole package from the vehicle manufacturer. This is the case mostly for the vehicles have been out in the market in these recent years. Another way is to install the cruise control system on the older models of vehicles which are not equipped with the cruise control feature. The cruise control system needs to adapt to the changes of the weight of the car, especially for those commercial available cruise control system that is to be installed on the car after the production. In order to see how the weight affects the response of the cruise control system, cruise control model with different weights of car are simulated on the Simulink. First, the weight of the car is changed from 1000kg to 500kg, and the process transfer function of the model is obtained, as stated in (7).
1 (7) U( s ) 500 s + 50 The cruise control model is simulated with the same controller, which has Kp = 800 and Ki = 40, and the response of system is shown in Fig. 14. The steady state error of the system is slightly larger than 2%. There is no overshoot in the response, and the 10-90% rise time of the response is 1.6 sec. Y( s )

Fig. 12. Response of the system with Kp=800 and Ki=10

The second design specification of the cruise control system is having the steady state error of the response less than 2%. For the response of the system shown in Fig. 12, the steady state error is about 4%. Therefore, the value of the integral time constant is increased to further reduce the steady-state error. When the integral time constant is changed to 40, the controller of the model essentially eliminates the steady-state error of the response. The response of the cruise control model with the controller of Kp =800 and Ki = 40 is shown in Fig. 13. There is no overshoot in the response of the system, so the third design specification is met. Since the system is overdamped, the 10-90% rise time is used and is estimated to be 2.8 sec, which meets the design specifications. Therefore, the model with the controller of Kp = 800 and Ki=

Fig. 14. Response of the system with m = 500kg, Kp = 800 and Ki = 40

Fig. 16. Response of the system with m = 2000kg, Kp = 800 and Ki = 40

Since the steady state error is slightly larger than the design specification, the controller constants are varied to obtain a desired response. By increasing the integral time constant to 45, the steady state error of the response becomes 2%, while the 10 90% rise time is still be about 1.6 sec and there is no overshoot, as shown in Fig. 15. Therefore, all the design specifications are met for the cruise control system with the car weight of 500kg.

In order to meet the design specification for the steadystate error and the rise time, the control constants in the controller are adjusted to obtain a desired response. After a few combinations of different values of the contoller, Kp is picked to be 2000 and Ki is picked to be 80. The cruise control model with the new controller is simulated, and its response is shown in Fig. 17. The system has no overshoot and 1% steady-state error. Also, the rise time of the response is about 5 sec. Therefore, the design specifications of the cruise control with car weight of 2000 kg are met.

Fig. 15. Response of the system with m = 500kg, Kp = 800, and Ki = 45

Fig.17 Response of the system with m = 2000, Kp = 2000, and Ki = 80

Second, the weight of the car is increased to 2000kg, so the new process transfer function of the cruise control is obtained, as stated in (8). Y( s ) 1 (8) U( s ) 2000 s + 50 The model with m = 2000kg and the controller of Kp = 800 and Ki = 40 is simulated, as shown in Fig. 16. The system has no overshoot, and the rise time is about 8 sec. Also, the steady-state error is about 3.5%.

IV. ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL Adaptive cruise control (ACC) system takes the traffic flow into consideration in controlling the speed of a vehicle. ACC system not only maintains the pre-set speed of a vehicle, likes a conventional cruise control system does, but it also maintains a constant distance between the vehicle and the vehicle ahead by adapting the speed. Vehicle equipped with ACC system has a forward-looking sensor at the front of the vehicle to detect the relative speed of the preceding vehicle and the distance in between the two vehicles. Therefore, the difference between an ACC system and a CC system is that ACC system has the ability to adapt the speed of the preceding vehicle.

A. Background ACC system was first introduced in 1998 by Toyota on production vehicles in Japan, and it was a laser-based system for Toyotas Progress compact luxury sedan. Then, Nissan introduced a radar-based ACC system for its Cima 41LV-2, a luxury sedan sold in Japan. Later, Jaguar also offered an ACC for its XKR coupes and convertibles sold in Germany and Britain in September 1999 [4]. Other car manufacturers, for example, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Cadillac and BMW, have ACC feature available now in their selected models. Furthermore, the first model equipped with ACC system available in the United States was Lexus LS 430. Adaptive cruise control system measures the distance to the preceding vehicle and the relative speed of the vehicles. When there is no vehicle ahead on the roadway, the ACC system works in the same way as the conventional cruise control system. When there is a preceding vehicle or another vehicle cuts in front of the host vehicle, the ACC system measures the distance from the host vehicle to the vehicle ahead. If the measured distance is less than the desired distance preset by the driver, ACC system slows down the car with a maximum deceleration of 3.5m/s^2 by closing the throttle valve and/or automatically applying the brake until the preset distance is obtained [4], [5]. Also, if the measured distance is larger than the preset distance, the host vehicle resumes the preset speed. The basic components and subsystems in an ACC system on a traveling vehicle are shown in Fig. 18.

The ACC controller, which is the body computer module

(BCM) in the model shown in Fig. 19, regulates the speed of a vehicle by communicating to the EHBCM and ECM through a high-speed link. In such communication between the controller and other components, deceleration or acceleration commends can be sent to the brake and the throttle. Even though the ACC systems can reduce the chances of collisions between cars, the manufacturers of these systems and the car companies do not refer them as safety devices in order to avoid the liability claims in the collisions happened between cars equipped with ACC systems [4]. Instead, ACC systems are marketed as driver aids. Furthermore, ACC system cannot detect non-moving object on the road. B. Sensors The sensor of the ACC system detects the vehicle ahead through the use of either radar or lidar. Lidar is light detecting and ranging, and it is a laser-based analog to radar. Also, Lidar is less expensive to produce and is easier to package. However, it performs poorly in rain and in snow. The light beams of lidar are narrower than water droplets and snowflakes, so it pushes down the signal-to-noise ratio in bad weather. Since the engineers acknowledged the shortcoming of the lidar, the laser-based ACC system in car models such as Lexuss LS430 luxury sedan in 2001 automatically turns itself off in bad weather situation. The bad weather situation can be detected by the ACC system from the rapid setting of windshield wipers, the activating of the anti-brake system, or the slipping of tires on turn. On the other hand, the radar sensor in ACC system can detect moving vehicle at distance up to 120 m or even 150 m in fog, heavy rain or other weather conditions. The radar typically operates in the millimeter-wave region at 76-77 Ghz. These high frequencies of the radar can reduce the

Fig. 18. Components of the ACC system in driving on road

Therefore, ACC system coordinates the driving behavior with the flow of traffic. A block diagram of the ACC vehicle integration system is presented by Delphi Cooperation, as shown in Fig. 19 [8].
Fig. 19. Vehicle integration with ACC system

antenna size, so the car manufacturers can mount the radar inside a cars front grille without changing the shape or the construction of the vehicle. An example of grille-embedded radar is in BMW 5 Series model, as shown in Fig. 20 [6]. Also, a typical automotive radar, produced by Delphi Delco Electronic Systems, is roughly has a size of 14 by 7 by 10cm.

The desired range is defined as (10), which is a curve fitting result of human driver behavior [7].
rd ( t) 6.33v
0.48

(10)

In the simulation of the model, the velocity of the preceding vehicle remains 12.5 m/s for the whole time. The host vehicle equipped with ACC system is traveling at 25 m/s, when the distance between the two cars is 150 m at time (t) = 0 sec in the simulation. At t = 10 sec, the third vehicle cut in front of the third vehicle and becomes the new preceding vehicle, so the range between the host vehicle and its preceding vehicle drops instantaneously, as shown in Fig. 21.

+2

Fig. 20. BMW X5 with long range radar sensor

The reason for automakers to choose the laser-based over the radar-based system is that ACC system should not work far beyond what the driver can see in bad weather situation, for example, in rain heavy enough to cut the drivers visibility on traffic down to 10 m or less. Then, the driver can drive in a safe speed by taking control of the car speed manually in conditions of poor visibility, instead of driving too fast by relying on ACC system, which can be dangerous. However, the automakers of radar-based system argue that the driver needs ACC system the most to detect the preceding vehicle, while the driver cannot see far due to poor visibility. C. Modeling A model of ACC system in highway merging control is conducted by Raja Sengupta and Qing Xu from University of California. A cut-in scenario in highway is modeled in the study and is described here. First, a host vehicle equipped with ACC system is following its preceding vehicle. Second, a third car in the adjacent lane cuts in between the two vehicles, and it becomes the new preceding vehicle of the host vehicle. Third, the host vehicle detects the distance to the cut-in vehicle and the relative speed of the two cars, so it adapts to the traffic flow and slows down to make room for the new preceding vehicle. The ACC model in the cut-in scenario is implemented on Matlab/Simulink. The ACC controller is modeled, as stated in (9), in the simulation. The distance between two cars is indicated as the range. (9) where r(t) is d the ades ( t ) kv r( t ) + kp r( t ) rd ( t ) range, dr(t)/dt dt is the range rate, and rd ( t ) is the desired range.

Fig. 21. Range of the ACC vehicle to the preceding vehicle

Also, the changes of the velocity of the host vehicle with time are shown in Fig. 22.

Fig. 22. Velocity of the ACC vehicle vs time

The actual acceleration is close to the desired acceleration of the ACC vehicle, as shown in Fig. 23, where the dotted line is the desired acceleration and the solid line is the actual acceleration. When the merge-in occurs at time = 10 sec, the host vehicle decelerates at 2.4 m/s^2 to obtain a desired distance to the merge-in vehicle. Then, the host vehicle accelerates from -2.4 m/s^2 to slightly above 0 m/s^2 after obtaining a desired distance.

The controller gains are indicated as kv and kp. The gains are used to deal with different relation of the range and the range rate, so that the controller reacts more aggressively in a shorter range and more negative range rate [7].

Fig. 23. Acceleration of the ACC vehicle vs time

A trial ACC model in a merge-in situation is constructed on Simlulink as shown in Fig. 24.

Fig. 24. A Trial ACC Model in a merge-in situation

The controller for the vehicle is the same as the one used in the final cruise control model in the simulation. The actual distance measured is modeled by a signal builder on Simulink, as shown in Fig. 25. The distance loop feeds back to the cruise control loop, after the measured distance is subtracted from the desired distance as shown in Fig.24.

Fig. 26. Response of the trial ACC model

At time = 5 sec, the ACC vehicle has reached to the desired speed. Then, a third car merges in front of the ACC vehicle, so the output velocity of the ACC vehicle drops below the desired speed, as shown in Fig. 26. Due to the feedback loop in the control system, the ACC vehicle accelerates to achieve the desired response. Later, the mergein vehicle drops out, so the ACC vehicle has some overshoot in its response, but it finally goes back to its desired speed, as shown in the response from the simulation in Fig. 26. V. NEXT GENERATION A. Stop-and-Go Adaptive Cruise Control Since a typical adaptive cruise control system only operates at a speed above 40 km/h, an advanced version of adaptive control, stop-and-go adaptive cruise control, is developed to compensate ACC system in traveling at a lower speed, especially in a heavy traffic jam. Stop-and-go adaptive cruise control system detects the relative speed to the preceding vehicle and the distance between the two vehicles, and then controls the speed of the host vehicle in the speed range all the way down to 0 km/h. If the vehicle in front of the host vehicle stops, the stop-and-go ACC system will bring the host vehicle to a complete stop by disengaging the throttle and applying the brake. Also, the stop-and-go ACC system will not re-engage the throttle after the vehicle was brought to a halt, as it gives the driver total control in accelerating the vehicle from the completely stop. Once the stop-and-go ACC system is engaged again, it accelerates and decelerates the vehicle according to the traffic flow and the cruise control speed. A millimeter-wave radar, which is used for ordinary ACC system, and a stereo camera or a short-range radar are needed for an ACC system enhanced with stop-and-go feature. According to Keiji Fujimura, a senior manager at Fujitsu Ten, a combination of the radar and the camera works more efficiently in tracking the vehicle ahead and the non-moving objects. A block diagram for a stop-and-go ACC system is shown in Fig. 27 [4].

Fig. 25. Distance Input vs time

In the beginning of the merge-in scenario simulation, the ACC vehicle is traveling behind the preceding vehicle at a desired distance. At time = 6 sec, a third vehicle cuts in front of the host vehicle, such that the new distance between the merge-in vehicle and the host vehicle is larger than the desired distance, and the new distance remains the same for 6 sec. Then, at time = 16 sec, the merge-in vehicle starts to cross over to another lane. Finally, at time = 20 sec, the distance between the host vehicle and vehicle ahead is back to the desired distance. The trail ACC model is simulated, and its response to a step input is shown in Fig. 26.

9 [9] BMW AG, BMW ACC Active Cruise Control Stop & Go, German Car Fans, LLC., 4 August 2003, http://www.germancarfans.com/News.cfm/NewsID/2030806.002/b mw/1.html

VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Karen Lie was born in Hong Kong, on October 20, 1982. She graduated from Calvin College, Michigan, United States.

Fig. 27 The stop-and-go ACC system

Automakers have been developing car models with stopand-go ACC features. For instance, stop-and-go ACC system is available on the BMW 5 and 7 series [9]. B. Corporative Adaptive Cruise Control Corporative adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) is an advanced version of ACC system. CACC system allows wireless communication about the speed and the acceleration of the vehicles between two or more vehicles equipped with CACC system. Therefore, CACC system can detect another CACC vehicle merges in sooner through the communication between the two vehicles than ACC system could. The response time of the vehicle equipped with CACC system to the traffic flow is shortened as long as the vehicles in surrounding are equipped with CACC system as well. CACC system is still under development. Also, intensive studies and experiments about CACC system have been done by California Partner for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH), a collaboration between the California Department of Transportation, the University of California and others. VI. REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] Karim Nice, "How cruise control system works, http://auto.howstuffworks.com/cruise-control.htm Bob Hewitt, Cruise Control Basic, http://www.minsterfixit.com/cruise1.htm Control tutorials for Matlab: Example: Modeling a cruise control system, http://www.engin.umich.edu/group/ctm/examples/cruise/cc.html. Willie D. Jones, Keeping cars from crashing, IEEE Spectrum, Sept 01, http://www.gavrila.net/Computer_Vision/Smart_Vehicles/Media_Co verage/spectrum.pdf Nissan Develops Cruise Control System, Nissan Corporate Communications Dept., News Release (November 25, 1998), http://www.nissan-global.com/GCC/Japan/NEWS/25c6.htm BMW AG, BMW ACC Active Cruise Control, German Car Fans, LLC., 4 August 2003, http://www.germancarfans.com/News.cfm/NewsID/2030805.001 Raja Sengupta and Qing Xu, Simulation, Analysis and Comparison of ACC and CACC in Highway Merging Control, California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways, Richmond, CA. http://path.berkeley.edu/dscr/pub/iv_2003.pdf Deron Littlejohn, Tom Fornari, George Kuo, Bryan Fulmer, Andrew Mooradian, Kevin Shipp, Joseph Elliott, Kwangjin Lee, and Margaret Richards, Performance, Robustness, and Durability of an Antomatic Brake System for Vehicle Adaptive Cruise Control, ASE International, Detroit, MI, SAE Technical Paper Seriess 200401-0255, March 2004. www.delphi.com/pdf/techpapers/2004-010255.pdf

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