Principal Investigator(s):
Rajesh Rajamani, Professor, Chair, Mechanical Engineering
Project summary:
The objective of this project is to develop and implement an intelligent cruise control (ICC) system on a Volvo truck that is being donated to the University of Minnesota. The ICC system would automatically monitor vehicles on the same and adjacent lanes on the highway, detect vehicles that "cut in" from adjacent lanes, switch from speed control to spacing control when necessary, and provide safe and comfortable driving in the presence of moderately dense traffic. The work will be done in collaboration with Volvo which will provide detailed engine maps, vehicle parameters and access to existing sensors and actuators on the truck. The project will be cost-shared by using funds from a University of Minnesota Grants-in-Aid research grant and indirectly through engineering man-hours contributed by the Center for Diesel Research and by Volvo. The immediate benefit of the ICC system would be to enable a Mobile Emissions Laboratory on the Volvo truck to safer and accurately follow vehicles on the highway and make reliable exhaust plume measurements. The long-term benefits o he research include the improvement of safety in highway driving, the development of a test-bed for future research related to vehicle automation, the potential use of the vehicle monitoring system for driver assistance in poor visibility an l he reduction of fuel consumption by 25 % in the case of trucks operating as a fleet by the use of ICC.