Jaguar Cars Limited

Paul John King

Michael Julian Richardson

Philip Alexander Barber

Gerald H Engelman

Daniel Watts

Chris Belton

Disclosed herein is a headway control for an adaptive cruise control system based on a basic headway control law derived from feedback linearization techniques. The usefulness of the linear approximations is demonstrated, and basic attributes of data which are believed important to system response are introduced. Certain modifications to a basic headway controller for enabling system performance to better meet driver expectations under real road conditions are made as a result of empirical information.

Adaptive vehicle cruise control system and methodology

An adaptive cruise control system 1 for a vehicle 3, is capable of operating in at least two modes, a Cruise mode in which the speed of the vehicle 3 is controlled to maintain a set speed, and a Follow mode in which the speed of the vehicle 3 is controlled to maintain a set distance from the preceding target vehicle 5. The system 1 includes means 7 to switch from Cruise mode to Follow mode if a target vehicle 5 is detected within a predetermined distance 9 of the vehicle 3, and a driver display interface 11 for displaying the mode of operation of the adaptive cruise control system 1. A change anticipation system 13 detects when the system operation is about to change mode from Cruise to Follow and causes the display interface 11 to display to the driver that the mode change is about to occur, prior to the system change to allow the driver to take avoiding action.

Adaptive cruise control system

A cruise control system for a motor vehicle includes a sensor for monitoring a target vehicle moving in front of the equipped vehicle, a sensor for monitoring the speed of the equipped vehicle and a sensor for monitoring steering manoeuvres of the equipped vehicle, the cruise control system controlling the throttle and brake systems of the vehicle to control the speed of the vehicle. The cruise control system is switchable between a cruise mode in which it will maintain a set cruising speed when the path in front of the vehicle is clear and a follow mode in which it will maintain a preset headway with a target vehicle in front of the equipped vehicle. The system is switched from the cruise mode to the follow mode when a target vehicle moves inside the preset headway, the system switching from the follow mode to the cruise mode when the target vehicle is lost or moves outside a preset headway. When switching from the follow mode to the cruise mode, the cruise control system applies a resume acceleration to accelerate the equipped vehicle back to the set cruising speed, the resume acceleration rate being adjusted as a function of steering manoeuvres carried out by the equipped vehicle.

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Leicester, United Kingdom

Paul John King