Research on V2V Time Headway Strategy Considering Multi-Front Vehicles Based on Artificial Potential Field

Within the Internet of Vehicles, the driver’s conduct is more affected by the information about the vehicles in front of them. To meet the driver’s demand for the design of the safety vehicle distance of the adaptive cruise control system in the Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) environment, this paper employs the artificial potential field (APF) theory to enhance the vehicle time headway strategy and constructs a mixed force function in the global force field with three front vehicles as the center of the three potential fields. Taking into account the inadequate control effect of conventional APF in a dynamic environment, this paper describes the relative kinematic characteristics of the vehicles in front and the host vehicle as parameters and obtains the improved APF. The improved strategy based on APF enhances the forward-looking and anti-interference ability of the distance strategy. Also, the strategy presented in this paper can achieve time headway control under all operating conditions and prevent acceleration fluctuations due to switching between various control strategies. For collaborative simulation, this research uses MATLAB/Simulink and Carsim software. The simulation is conducted under three common traffic scenarios, and it is determined that the improved control method results in smoother changes in vehicle speed, acceleration, and car-following distance, hence improving driving and riding comfort.