Time Shift Governor-Guided MPC with Collision Cone CBFs for Safe Adaptive Cruise Control in Dynamic Environments

Abstract: This paper introduces a Time Shift Governor (TSG)-guided Model Predictive Controller with Control Barrier Functions (CBFs)-based constraints for adaptive cruise control (ACC). This MPC-CBF approach is defined for obstacle-free curved road tracking, while following distance and obstacle avoidance constraints are handled using standard CBFs and relaxed Collision Cone CBFs. In order to address scenarios involving rapidly moving obstacles or rapidly changing leading vehicle's behavior, the TSG augmentation is employed which alters the target reference to enforce constraints. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the TSG-guided MPC-CBF approach.