Observer-Based Path Tracking Controller Design for Autonomous Ground Vehicles With Input Saturation

This paper investigates the problem of path tracking control for autonomous ground vehicles(AGVs),where the input saturation,system nonlinearities and uncertainties are considered.Firstly,the nonlinear path tracking system is formulated as a linear parameter varying(LPV)model where the variation of vehicle velocity is taken into account.Secondly,considering the noise effects on the measurement of lateral offset and heading angle,an observer-based control strategy is proposed,and by analyzing the frequency domain characteristics of the derivative of desired heading angle,a finite frequency H_∞index is proposed to attenuate the effects of the derivative of desired heading angle on path tracking error.Thirdly,sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee robust H_∞performance of the path tracking system,and the calculation of observer and controller gains is converted into solving a convex optimization problem.Finally,simulation examples verify the advantages of the control method proposed in this paper.

Ribbon model based path tracking method for autonomous ground vehicles

To resolve the path tracking problem of autonomous ground vehicles,an analysis of existing path tracking methods was carried out and an important conclusion was got.The vehicle-road model is crucial for path following.Based on the conclusion,a new vehicle-road model named "ribbon model" was constructed with consideration of road width and vehicle geometry structure.A new vehicle-road evaluation algorithm was proposed based on this model,and a new path tracking controller including a steering controller and a speed controller was designed.The difficulties of preview distance selection and parameters tuning with speed in the pure following controller are avoided in this controller.To verify the performance of the novel method,simulation and real vehicle experiments were carried out.Experimental results show that the path tracking controller can keep the vehicle in the road running as fast as possible,so it can adjust the control strategy,such as safety,amenity,and rapidity criteria autonomously according to the road situation.This is important for the controller to adapt to different kinds of environments,and can improve the performance of autonomous ground vehicles significantly.

An Ellipsoidal Set-Membership Approach to Distributed Joint State and Sensor Fault Estimation of Autonomous Ground Vehicles

This paper is concerned with the problem of distributed joint state and sensor fault estimation for autonomous ground vehicles subject to unknown-but-bounded(UBB)external disturbance and measurement noise.In order to improve the estimation reliability and performance in cases of poor data collection and potential communication interruption,a multisensor network configuration is presented to cooperatively measure the vehicular yaw rate,and further compute local state and fault estimates.Toward this aim,an augmented descriptor vehicle model is first established,where the unknown sensor fault is modeled as an auxiliary state of the system model.Then,a new distributed ellipsoidal set-membership estimation approach is developed so as to construct an optimized bounding ellipsoidal set which guarantees to contain the vehicle’s true state and the sensor fault at each time step despite the existence of UBB disturbance and measurement noises.Furthermore,a convex optimization algorithm is put forward such that the gain matrix of each distributed estimator can be recursively obtained.Finally,simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Communication security of autonomous ground vehicles based on networked control systems:The optimized LMI approach

The paper presents a study of networked control systems(NCSs)that are subjected to periodic denial-of-service(DoS)attacks of varying intensity.The use of appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals(LKFs)help to reduce the constraints of the basic conditions and lower the conservatism of the criteria.An optimization problem with constraints is formulated to select the trigger threshold,which is solved using the gradient descent algorithm(GDA)to improve resource utilization.An intelligent secure event-triggered controller(ISETC)is designed to ensure the safe operation of the system under DoS attacks.The approach is validated through experiments with an autonomous ground vehicle(AGV)system based on the Simulink platform.The proposed method offers the potential for developing effective defense mechanisms against DoS attacks in NCSs.

Model predictive control for autonomous ground vehicles:a review

This paper reviews model predictive control(MPC)and its wide applications to both single and multiple autonomous ground vehicles(AGVs).On one hand,MPC is a well-established optimal control method,which uses the predicted future information to optimize the control actions while explicitly considering constraints.On the other hand,AGVs are able to make forecasts and adapt their decisions in uncertain environments.Therefore,because of the nature of MPC and the requirements of AGVs,it is intuitive to apply MPC algorithms to AGVs.AGVs are interesting not only for considering them alone,which requires centralized control approaches,but also as groups of AGVs that interact and communicate with each other and have their own controller onboard.This calls for distributed control solutions.First,a short introduction into the basic theoretical background of centralized and distributed MPC is given.Then,it comprehensively reviews MPC applications for both single and multiple AGVs.Finally,the paper highlights existing issues and future research directions,which will promote the development of MPC schemes with high performance in AGVs.

Multi-constrained model predictive control for autonomous ground vehicle trajectory tracking

A multi-constrained model predictive control （ MPC ） algorithm for trajectory tracking of an autonomous ground vehicle is proposed and tested in this paper. First, to simplify the computa- tion, an active steering linear error model is applied in the MPC controller. Then, a control incre- ment constraint and a relaxing factor are taken into account in the objective function to ensure the smoothness of the trajectory, using a softening constraints technique. In addition, the controller can obtain optimal control sequences which satisfy both the actual kinematic constraints and the actuator constraints. The circular trajectory tracking performance of the proposed method is compared with that of another MPC controller. To verify the trajectory tracking capabilities of the designed control- ler at different desired speed, the simulation experiments are carried out at the speed of 3m/s, 5m/ s and 10m/s. The results demonstrate the MPC controller has a good speed adaptability.

A Rapid Path Planner for Autonomous Ground Vehicle Using Section Collision Detection

Rapid path planner plays an important role in autonomous ground vehicle （AGV） operation. Depending on the non-holonomic kinematics constraints of AGV, its path planning problem is discussed. Since rapidly-exploring random tree （RRT） can directly take non-holonomic constraints into consideration, it is selected to solve this problem. By applying extra constraints on the movement, the generation of new configuration in RRT algorithm is simplified and accelerated. With section collision detection method applied, collision detection within the planer becomes more accurate and efficient. Then a new path planner is developed. This method complies with the non-holonomic constraints, avoids obstacles effectively and can be rapidly carried out while the vehicle is running. Simulation shows that this path planner can complete path planning in less than 0.5 s for a 170 mx 170 m area with moderate obstacle complexity.