An interface between continuous and discrete-event controllers for vehicle automation

J. Lygeros, D.N. Godbole
Proceedings of 1994 American Control Conference - ACC '94  
Automation of highways and in particular platooning of vehicles raises a number of control issues. A hierarchical structure is used to address these issues. The work presented here is an attempt at constructing a consistent interface between discrete event and continuous time controllers. The design proposed is a finite state machine that communicates with the discrete controllers by issuing commands that get translated to "jerk" input for the vehicle engine. The operation of the proposed
more » ... is tested using COSPAN. By virtue of the fact that the interface touches on both the discrete and continuous worlds, the design might provide insight to interesting problems related to the hybrid nature of the system. Abstract The work presented here is part of a bigger e ort to design an automated highway system to improve the capacity and safety of the current highways. Automation of highways and in particular platooning of vehicles raises a number of control issues. In the design proposed in 1 these issues are addressed by a hierarchical structure consisting of both discrete event and continuous time controllers. The work presented here is an attempt to construct a consistent i n terface between these two t ypes of controllers. The design proposed is in the form of a set of nite state machines that interact with the discrete controllers through discrete commands and ags and with the continuous controllers by issuing commands that get translated to inputs for the vehicle actuators. The operation of the proposed design is veri ed using COSPAN and tested in simulation. By virtue of the fact that the interface touches on both the discrete and continuous worlds, the design might p r o vide insight t o i n teresting problems related to the hybrid nature of the system.
doi:10.1109/acc.1994.751853 fatcat:swz26uvqgjdixovm2rdllfrm3e