A novel adaptive vehicle speed recommender fuzzy system for autonomous vehicles on conventional two‐lane roads

Abstract

This paper presents an intelligent speed adaption system for vehicles on conventional roads. The fuzzy logic based expert system outputs a recommended speed to ensure both safety and passenger comfort. This intelligent system includes geometrical features of the road, as well as subjective perceptions of the drivers. It has been developed and checked with real data that were measured with an instrumental system incorporated in a vehicle, on several two-lane roads located in the Madrid Region, Spain. Along with the road geometrical characteristics, other input variables to the system are external factors, such as weather conditions, distance to the preceding vehicle, tire pressure, and other subjective criteria, such as the desired comfort level, selected by the driver. The expert system output is the most suitable speed for the specific road type, considering real factors that may modify the category of the road and thus, the appropriate speed. This information could be added to the adaptive cruise control of the vehicle. The recommended speed can be a very useful input for both, drivers and the autonomous vehicles, to improve safety on the road system.