Development of a Platform Technology for Automated Vehicle Research: Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control
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Summary
This report details the development of a platform technology for automated vehicle research, specifically focusing on the implementation of Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC). The work was conducted by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations Research and Development at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC). The primary motivation was to expand the FHWA’s Innovation Research Vehicle Fleet with five new vehicles capable of supporting advanced connected automation concepts. This platform aims to provide researchers with an experimental environment to evaluate future operational concepts, particularly those involving longitudinal control (acceleration and braking) and potential lateral control (steering). The research approach involved retrofitting vehicles to leverage existing original equipment manufacturer (OEM) safety technologies, such as Automatic Collision Prevention and Full-Range Adaptive Cruise Control. The CACC strategy was developed by layering a new control system atop the factory-equipped adaptive cruise control. This allows an onboard computer to intercept data from forward-looking sensors and cameras to command vehicle speed safely. The platform consists of three major components: Communications, Positioning, and Vehicle Control. For communications, the fleet utilizes 4G/LTE, WiFi, and 5.9 GHz Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) to enable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) connectivity. The positioning system employs multisensor fusion of dual-GPS receivers, inertial sensors, and wheel speed sensors, enhanced by Real Time Kinematic (RTK) corrections, ensuring continuous operation even during GPS signal degradation. Vehicle longitudinal control is managed by two independent electronic control units (ECUs) for throttle and brake, which filter OEM commands and inject researcher-defined torque or deceleration commands. The findings demonstrate that the platform successfully supports the first operational implementation of CACC, allowing vehicles to share speed, heading, location, and gap information to enable coordinated applications like platooning and speed harmonization. The system supports software development using model-based tools like MATLAB and Simulink. The platform’s open architecture allows for the testing of connected automation applications in managed lanes. The significance of this work lies in establishing a robust, flexible research infrastructure for the next five years. By enabling researcher-friendly access to longitudinal control and supporting various communication standards, the fleet facilitates the study of emerging connected automation technologies. This platform serves as a critical tool for advancing the evaluation of safety systems and operational concepts, bridging the gap between theoretical models and real-world vehicle performance.
Key finding
The FHWA successfully developed and tested a Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control platform that enables coordinated longitudinal vehicle control through integrated communications and retrofitted electronic control units.
Methodology
lab_experiment
Sample size: 5
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (7 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 4 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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