Pneumatic brake control for precision stopping of heavy-duty vehicles

Precision stopping is an important automated vehicle control function that is critical in applications such as precision bus docking, automated truck or bus fueling, as well as automatic intersection, or toll booth stopping. The initial applications of this technology are most likely to be applied to heavy-duty vehicles such as buses or trucks. Such applications require specific attention to brake control since the characteristics of a typical pneumatic brake system of a heavy vehicle is inherently nonlinear with large uncertainties. The feasibility of providing a smooth precision stopping brake control based on a conventional pneumatic brake system has not yet been demonstrated. This paper describes the precision stopping problem, verifies the pneumatic brake model, details the indirect adaptive robust control (IARC) design for a pneumatic brake system, and reports the successful implementation of a bus precision docking demonstration.