Longitudinal Control of Vehicles in Traffic Microsimulation

Abstract: Current state-of-art traffic microsimulation tools cannot accurately estimate safety, efficiency, and mobility benefits of automated driving systems and vehicle connectivity because of not considering physical and powertrain characteristics of vehicles and resistance forces. This paper proposes realistic longitudinal control functions for autonomous vehicles with and without vehicle-to-vehicle communications and a realistic vehicle-following model for human-driven vehicles, considering driver characteristics and vehicle dynamics. Conventional longitudinal control functions apply a constant time gap policy and use empirical constant controller coefficients, potentially sacrificing safety or reducing throughput. Proposed longitudinal control functions calculate minimum safe time gaps at each simulation time step and tune controller coefficients at each simulation time step during acceleration and deceleration to maximize throughput without compromising safety.