Adaptive Cruise Control Trajectory Estimation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) face limitations in recognizing when a leading vehicle departs from its travel trajectory, leading to unnecessary or overly conservative decelerations in the host vehicle, resulting in increased fuel consumption and reduced comfort.
Innovation Solution
The ACC system estimates the travel trajectory of the leading vehicle relative to the host vehicle, adjusting control parameters to avoid or minimize unnecessary decelerations by considering the leading vehicle's distance from the lane center, lateral speed, direction indicator activation, and road geometry, allowing for more dynamic longitudinal control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the ACC system maintains a conservative following distance to prevent collisions, then safety is improved, but fuel consumption increases and driving comfort deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the following distance based on the leading vehicle's trajectory estimation. When the leading vehicle is estimated to stay in the current lane, the system reduces the following distance from the conservative default value, allowing the host vehicle to follow more closely and improve fuel efficiency. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction by making the safety margin adaptive rather than static.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the control parameter (following distance) based on detected conditions. By estimating the leading vehicle's trajectory using lateral position, lateral velocity, and direction indicator status, the system modifies the safety margin parameter to be smaller when collision risk is low, thereby reducing unnecessary energy consumption while maintaining safety when needed.
2Reliability
If the ACC system decelerates conservatively to maintain safety distance, then collision avoidance is improved, but driving comfort deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The deceleration behavior is made dynamic based on trajectory estimation. When the leading vehicle shows signs of lane change (lateral movement, direction indicator active), the system maintains conservative deceleration for safety. When the leading vehicle is stable in its lane, the system reduces unnecessary decelerations, providing a more comfortable driving experience while maintaining collision avoidance capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the deceleration parameter based on the estimated trajectory of the leading vehicle. By calculating lateral position, lateral velocity, and direction indicator status, the system adjusts the deceleration magnitude - using smaller decelerations when collision risk is low, thereby improving comfort while preserving safety when the leading vehicle's trajectory indicates potential conflict.
3Device complexity
If the ACC system uses sensor-based detection only, then system complexity is reduced, but the ability to recognize leading vehicle trajectory departures deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system makes the existing sensors multi-functional by using them not only for longitudinal distance measurement but also for estimating lateral trajectory. By calculating lateral position and lateral velocity from sensor data and incorporating direction indicator detection, the system extracts additional trajectory information from the same sensor suite, improving measurement precision without adding hardware complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
An automotive adaptive cruise control system for a host motor vehicle configured to operate in at least two different operating modes comprising at least a first operating mode in which a current speed of the host motor vehicle is controlled to maintain a cruise speed, and a second operating mode, in which the current speed of the host motor vehicle is controlled to maintain a cruise distance from a leading motor vehicle. In the second operating mode, the automotive adaptive cruise control system is further configured to estimate the travel trajectory of the motor vehicle relative to that of a leading motor vehicle, and when the leading motor vehicle is estimated to be departing from the travel trajectory of the host motor vehicle, to adjust one or more of the control parameters on based of which the automotive adaptive cruise control system operates in the second operating mode.