The Relationship Between the Traffic Flow and the Look-Ahead Cruise Control

There is a relationship between the traffic flow and the look-ahead control; they strongly interact with each other. Thus, this paper develops a design method for the look-ahead control, in which the influences of the traffic flow are considered. A sensitivity analysis of the parameter variation in the look-ahead control is also performed. If the traffic information is also considered in the look-ahead control, an undesirable side effect on the traffic flow may occur. An optimization method is also developed in order to calculate the optimum speed, which handles the individual vehicle energy optimization and its impact on the traffic flow. The method is illustrated through a complex simulation example based on the CarSim software.