In [1], Varaiya outlines a fully automated highway system (AHS), which
promises a threefold increase in traffic capacity. The core of this p
rotocol to achieve a fully automated highway system is a four-layer hi
erarchical control architecture. Starting from the bottom, the layers
are called the regulation, planning, link and network layers. In this
paper, our emphasis is on the design of longitudinal control laws for
the regulation layer operation. Longitudinal control laws are proposed
for a vehicle to execute different maneuvers requested from its plann
ing layer. The maneuvers include leader tracking target speed, platoon
merge, platoon split, lane change, and follower spacing control. In p
articular, the novelty of the proposed follower spacing control law is
that the controller uses the information not only from vehicles in fr
ont but also from vehicles behind. It is proven that, with the propose
d approach, the platoon is theoretically stable and free of slinky-typ
e effects.