Skip to main content

TNO tests cooperative adaptive cruise control vehicles

The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, TNO, is in the process of developing a low cost cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) technology. This is being demonstrated in a test fleet of Toyota Prius cars in which factory-fitted long-range radar is used together with wireless vehicle to vehicle communications (802.11p and ETSI Geonet) and GPS based location, to enable CACC.
March 19, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSThe Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, 1427 TNO Defence, is in the process of developing a low cost cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) technology. This is being demonstrated in a test fleet of 2728 Toyota Prius cars in which factory-fitted long-range radar is used together with wireless vehicle to vehicle communications (802.11p and ETSI Geonet) and GPS based location, to enable CACC. Control of each of the vehicles is achieved through interaction with the CAN bus in order to manage acceleration and deceleration directly through the hybrid powertrain’s own control system.

The CACC control strategy aims to optimise the collective behaviour of participating vehicles in order to safely allow significant reductions in inter-vehicle spacing while providing a comfortable experience for drivers. This includes, for example, the avoidance of oscillations of the ad-hoc platoon and the management of issues of signal degradation and of merging in and out at junctions.

In order to test and demonstrate this advanced system and consider the potential for its further development, three of TNO’s Prius vehicles equipped with CACC were evaluated at 3182 innovITS Advance, the UK research and development centre for telecommunications, automotive and electronics industries.

“CACC allows for very small headway times and hence has the potential to reduce fuel consumption and emissions as well as improving road space utilisation,” said Jeroen Ploeg, TNO project manager Automotive/CACC. “TNO has made some very significant advances in this new field of technology and we were pleased to be able to test and demonstrate some of our CACC research vehicles at InnovITS Advance. This facility’s network of urban roads with fully controllable communications infrastructure makes it a very attractive location for the testing and development of new cooperative vehicle technologies such as CACC.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • TRL announces tool to predict incident response consequences
    May 1, 2012
    TRL has formally launched its latest software product to help keep the UK's roads moving when an incident or planned event threatens to create significant congestion. TEST - Tool for Evaluating Strategies for Traffic - has been developed for operators of traffic control centres to predict the consequences of actions they undertake on their network, in response to an incident.Incidents, events and road works all have the potential to impact traffic patterns and flows and can often cause significant congestio
  • Wireless platform for remote vehicle management and emergency services
    May 14, 2012
    The Actia Group, an international provider of value-added electronic equipment for the automotive market, has selected Sierra Wireless AirPrime AR Series modules to provide high-performance connectivity for its latest in-vehicle technology platform. The new platform, called the ACU-II (Actia Connect Unit second generation), uses the AirPrime module to allow drivers to connect and manage various functions of vehicles through a smartphone application, giving them the ability to, for example, lock or unlock th
  • Lowering construction machine exhaust emissions
    November 6, 2017
    The alternatives to diesel fuel as a power source continue to grow as firms move to cut emissions - Mike Woof writes. Only the most myopic could have failed to notice that times are changing in terms of engine technology. In the on-highway automotive sector as well as for the off-highway construction machine segment, manufacturers are looking to lower tailpipe emissions. Similar technologies have been employed in both on-highway and off-highway sectors, although those solutions have been adapted to better
  • Ground control to mining truck offers efficiency gains
    June 19, 2015
    Autonomous and remote control machines are not about to take over the world, but they can provide efficiency gains and savings in some operations – Colin Sowman writes The thought of autonomous machines may conjure up visions of an Orwellian future where society works for the ‘common good’ defined by an all-powerful being and in which people are insignificant in terms of their needs, aspirations and physical wellbeing; of machines that relentlessly carry out their task regardless of anybody or anything that