TECHNOLOGY CASE

STUDY CRUISE CONTROL

CHRISTOPHER
ALLISON

Christopher Allison

Mr Tait

5th Year Techy

Introduction
Cruise control systems maintain the speed of a car at a level set
by the driver, without having to use the accelerator.
The main developer of cruise control was Ralph Teetor, who was
a mechanical engineer and had his first patent for the design of a
speed cruise control device in 1945. Teetor was inspired to invent
cruise control one day while riding with his lawyer. The lawyer
would slow down while talking and speed up while listening. This
rocking motion so annoyed Teetor that he was determined to
invent a speed control device. It took him a while to make it
suitable for commercial use and was first used in 1958 in a
Chrysler.
Cruise Control is more common in American manufactured cars
than European cars as the roads are straighter and longer. There
is less need to break in America on the long journeys causing a
cruise control system in a car to become more effective. But
luxury European cars like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are
developing adaptive cruise control which uses radar to follow the
car in front while maintaining a safe distance from the car. Safety
precautions are necessary to ensure the system fully works.
Features like a manual override for the driver by accelerating or
breaking to avoid immediate danger need to be available.
This project focuses on the manual setting of cruise control not
the adaptive CC; this cruise control is a very good example of a
feedback control system.

Christopher Allison

Throttle Position Sensor

Analysis and Description

The cruise control system has a number of inputs, a control

computer, and a mechanical output connecting to the engine
throttle. The block diagram above shows the general
arrangement of a cruise control system. Most updated cruise
control systems have a feedback loop from the throttle position.
The feedback signal is generated by the speed of the car and fed
into the cruise control system through the vehicles speed signal
input.

Driver Interface & Inputs

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The controls for cruise control have to be easy to use whilst

driving and are usually within range of the drivers hands when
steering.
The cruise control system actually has a lot of functions other
than controlling the speed of your car. For instance, the cruise
control pictured below can accelerate or decelerate the car by 1
mph with the tap of a button. Hit the button five times to go 5
mph faster.
The system pictured below has five buttons: On, Off, Set/Accel,
Resume and Coast. Also the brake and clutch pedal are fitted with
limit switches that detect pressure and will automatically disable
the cruise control.

The on and off buttons don't actually do much. Hitting the on

button does not do anything except tell the car that you might be
hitting another button soon. The off button turns the cruise
control off even if it is engaged. Some cruise controls don't have
these buttons; instead, they turn off when the driver hits the
brakes, and turn on when the driver hits the set button.

The set/accel button tells the car to maintain the speed you
are currently driving. If you hit the set button at 45 mph, the car
will maintain your speed at 45 mph. Holding down the set/accel
button will make the car accelerate; and on this car, tapping it
once will make the car go 1 mph faster.
Christopher Allison

If you have recently disengaged the cruise control by hitting

the brake pedal, hitting the resume button will command the car
to accelerate back to the most recent speed setting.

Holding down the coast button will cause the car to

decelerate, just as if you took your foot completely off the gas.
On this car, tapping the coast button once will cause the car to
slow down by 1 mph.

The brake pedal and clutch pedal each have a switch that
disengages the cruise control as soon as the pedal is pressed, so
you can shut off the cruise control with a light tap on the brake or
clutch.
Mechanical Arrangement
The cruise control system controls the speed of your car the same
way a person does - by adjusting the throttle position. But cruise
control actuates the throttle valve by a cable connected to an
actuator, instead of by pressing a pedal. The throttle valve
controls the power and speed of the engine by limiting how much
air the engine takes in. When the cruise control system is active
and is controlling the speed the accelerator pedal will move just
like if the driver was pressing the accelerator pedal down.

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To
Accelerator
Pedal
To Vacuum
Actuator

One of the cable is connected to the accelerator pedal, and the

other two the vacuum actuator. When the cruise control is
engaged, the actuator moves the cable connected to the pivot,
which adjusts the throttle; but it also pulls on the cable that is
connected to the accelerator pedal - this is why the accelerator
pedal moves up and down when the cruise control system is
engaged.

Christopher Allison

The electronically-controlled vacuum actuator

that controls the throttle

Many cars use actuators powered by engine vacuum to open and

close the throttle. These systems use a small, electronically
controlled valve to control the vacuum in a diaphragm.

Cruise Control Software

The cruise control system is a small microcontroller computer
that is normally found under the hood or behind the dashboard of
the car. It connects as scene in the previous section to the
throttle control as well as various other sensors. The diagram
below shows the inputs and outputs of a cruise control system.

Christopher Allison

A cruise control system will accelerate aggressively to the desired

speed without overshooting, and then maintains that speed with
little deviation no matter how much weight is in the car, or big the
gradient of the hill that it is climbing/descending. The cruise
control system controls the speed of the car by adjusting the
throttle position, so it needs sensors to tell it the speed and
throttle position. It also needs to monitor the controls so it can tell
what the desired speed is and when to disengage. The simplest
control system to keep the cars speed at a constant set level
would be an on/off system. If the cars speed was less than the
set speed, full throttle (off) would be applied until the actual
speed was the same as the set speed. At this point the throttle
would be closed (off) and the car would begin to decelerate. The
cycle would constantly repeat with the speed fluctuating above
and below the desired speed.
Proportional Control
In a proportional control system, the cruise control adjusts the
throttle proportional to the error, the error being the difference
between the desired speed and the actual speed. As the speed
increases towards the set speed the throttle will start to gradually
close. The effect of this is that there is less fluctuation in the
speed will be reduced.
PID control
Most cruise control systems use a control scheme called
proportional-integral-derivative control (PID control). This is the
most technologically advanced system as it takes in three main
factors.

The integral of speed, is when the speed is increased by a

minimal amount so to compensate with not accelerating it takes
into account the distance the car would have travelled if it was
going at the desired speed in comparison with distance it has
done at the actual speed. It takes this distance into account and
will increase the speed to compensate for this lost distance when
needed.
Christopher Allison

The derivative of speed is the quickness the car responds to

acceleration the car will experience at hills, i.e. opening/closing
the throttle earlier.

The proportional control of the error described above.

A PID control system uses these three factors -- proportional,
integral and derivative, calculating each individually and adding
them to get the throttle position.
These factors all give PID control a huge advancement from the
other cruise control systems giving it the smoothest and finest
control; this is why it is used in all aspects of engineering, from
industrial control through to aviation.

Adaptive Cruise Control

Adaptive cruise control uses forward-looking radar, installed
behind the grill of a vehicle, to detect the speed and distance of
the vehicle ahead of it. Adaptive cruise control is similar to
conventional cruise control in that it maintains the vehicle's preset speed. However, unlike conventional cruise control, this new
system can automatically adjust speed in order to maintain a safe
distance between vehicles in the same lane in front of it. If the
lead vehicle slows down, or if another object is detected, the
system sends a signal to the engine or braking system to
decelerate. Then, when the road is clear, the system will reaccelerate the vehicle back to the set speed.

Christopher Allison

Social, Economic and Environmental Effects

Social: +++With the introduction of cruise control the driving

experience has become more relaxed especially for long
motorway drives where cruise control is most effective. This is a
positive factor as it means that drivers will become less stressed
and so can concentrate on other aspects of driving i.e. special
awareness of other cars around. So this will reduce car accidents.
Also there will be less cases of sore feet from pressing the throttle
for long periods of time.
---But, drivers might take this relaxation as a negative and
become less involved with their driving as they are not
concentrating on accelerating and braking. This will increase the
danger of drivers falling asleep and more accidents.
+++ When adaptive cruise control is introduces it will ensure that
there is always a safe following distance between you and the car
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in front. This is positive as it will take into account reaction times

when bad visibility and braking distance.
Economic: Jobs are being created for the research and
development of adaptive cruise control but nothing has changed
within the instalment of the electronics as it is all automated with
robots. So no jobs have been lost due to the introduction of cruise
control. Car manufacturing is constantly changing from the old
mechanical engineering model to new electronically filled cars.
This means that more of the manufacturing of components is
done overseas.
Environmental: As the car will be keeping at a more constant
speed there will be lower fuel consumption from constantly
revving and burning fuel. So it will cost the driver less. Therefore
the impact on the environment will positive as less fuel will be
needed and used up, so less pollution given off. The electronics of
cruise control is made up of lots of circuit boards and components
so will no doubt have a small negative effect on the environment
from the raw materials used up.

Conclusion
This report on cruise control is about the system and the main
ideas about how it works. Cruise control is fitted to many
American cars and the luxury European cars which makes the
long motorway journeys more relaxable for the driver. The
electronics of cruise control is linked up to the cars main
computer during the main assembly line.
Cruise control is an example of a control system with Inputs,
Outputs, Feedback Loops and software processing. The inputs
and transducers are quite simple but the control software was
very challenging to understand i.e. PID control.
Cruise Control is an example of the many new and innovative
electronic ideas which are being introduced for cars to increase
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the safety and relaxation of the driving experience. Cruise control

has a positive impact on driving with a benefit to the
environment.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEB PAGES

www.howstuffworks.com
http://www.motiontrends.com/ford/taurus_technology
www.google.com/images
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ModProb/CC.html
http://www.antony-anderson.com/cruise/2-cc.htm
www.visteon.com
http://www.benefitcost.its.dot.gov

Christopher Allison