Optimal control and discrete time-delay model of car following

Abstract

The control of car following is helpful to its safety and its operational efficiency. For this purpose, this paper builds a linear, continuous and time-delay model of car following, which is successively turned into the discrete model to satisfy computer data processing. And then, its controllability and its observability are analyzed. The approach of the infinite-time linear quadratic problem is used to find its feedback control laws of car following. Finally, the algorithm is given to compute the strategy the back car shall take. The simulated results show that the optimal control design is effective.