A Planning-free Longitudinal Controller Design for Vehicles in Dynamic Traffic Environments

Abstract: This paper investigates the longitudinal control problem in a dynamic traffic environment where driving scenarios change between free-driving scenarios and car-following scenarios. A comprehensive longitudinal controller is proposed to ensure reasonable transient response and steady-state response in scenarios changes, which is independent of planning algorithms. This design takes into account passenger comfort, safety concerns and disturbance rejections, and attempts to meet the requirement of lower cost, faster response, increased comfort, enhanced safety and elevated extendability from the automated vehicle industry. Design insights and intuitions are provided in detail. Comprehensive simulations are conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed controller in different driving scenarios.