This project will aim to develop a data-driven framework to analyze the disturbance amplification behavior of automated vehicles in car-following (CF). Specifically, a well-known signal processing method, Welch’s method, together with a short time Fourier transformation will be developed to extract the empirical transfer functions from vehicle trajectories. The method is first developed assuming a linear controller with time-invariant CF control features (e.g., control gains) and later extended to capture timevariant features. The proposed methods are evaluated for estimation consistencies via synthetic data-based simulations. The evaluation will include the performances of the linear approximation accuracy for a linear time-invariant controller, a nonlinear controller, and a linear time-variant controller.
