Accurately tracking hypersonic gliding vehicles via an LEO mega-constellation in relay tracking mode

In order to effectively defend against the threats of the hypersonic gliding vehicles(HGVs),HGVs should be tracked as early as possible,which is beyond the capability of the ground-based radars.Being benefited by the developing megaconstellations in low-Earth orbit,this paper proposes a relay tracking mode to track HGVs to overcome the above problem.The whole tracking mission is composed of several tracking intervals with the same duration.Within each tracking interval,several appropriate satellites are dispatched to track the HGV.Satellites that are planned to take part in the tracking mission are selected by a new derived observability criterion.The tracking performances of the proposed tracking mode and the other two traditional tracking modes,including the stare and track-rate modes,are compared by simulation.The results show that the relay tracking mode can track the whole trajectory of a HGV,while the stare mode can only provide a very short tracking arc.Moreover,the relay tracking mode achieve higher tracking accuracy with fewer attitude controls than the track-rate mode.

Guaranteed Cost Attitude Tracking Control for Uncertain Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Under Safety Constraints

In this paper,guaranteed cost attitude tracking con-trol for uncertain quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle(QUAV)under safety constraints is studied.First,an augmented system is constructed by the tracking error system and reference system.This transformation aims to convert the tracking control prob-lem into a stabilization control problem.Then,control barrier function and disturbance attenuation function are designed to characterize the violations of safety constraints and tolerance of uncertain disturbances,and they are incorporated into the reward function as penalty items.Based on the modified reward function,the problem is simplified as the optimal regulation problem of the nominal augmented system,and a new Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation is developed.Finally,critic-only rein-forcement learning algorithm with a concurrent learning tech-nique is employed to solve the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equa-tion and obtain the optimal controller.The proposed algorithm can not only ensure the reward function within an upper bound in the presence of uncertain disturbances,but also enforce safety constraints.The performance of the algorithm is evaluated by the numerical simulation.

Video-based vehicle tracking considering occlusion

To track the vehicles under occlusion, a vehicle tracking algorithm based on blocks is proposed. The target vehicle is divided into several blocks of uniform size, in which the edge block can overlap its neighboring blocks. All the blocks＇ motion vectors are estimated, and the noise motion vectors are detected and adjusted to decrease the error of motion vector estimation. Then, by moving the blocks based on the adjusted motion vectors, the vehicle is tracked. Aiming at the occlusion between vehicles, a Markov random field is established to describe the relationship between the blocks in the blocked regions. The neighborhood of blocks is defined using the Euclidean distance. An energy function is defined based on the blocks＇ histograms and optimized by the simulated annealing algorithm to segment the occlusion region. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can track vehicles under occlusion accurately.

Numerical Prediction of Ride Comfort of Tracked Vehicle Equipped with Novel Flexible Road Wheels

Enhancing ride comfort has always constituted a crucial focus in the design and research of modern tracked vehicles,heavily reliant on the driving system's performance.While the road wheel is a key component of the driving system,traditional road wheels predominantly adopt a solid structure,exhibiting subpar adhesion performance and damping effects,thereby falling short of meeting the demands for high-speed,stable,and long-distance driving in tracked vehicles.Addressing this issue,this paper proposes a novel type of flexible road wheel(FRW)characterized by a catenary construction.The study investigates the ride comfort of tracked vehicles equipped with flexible road wheels by integrating finite element and vehicle dynamic.First,three-dimensional(3D)finite element(FE)models of both flexible and rigid road wheels are established,considering material and contact nonlinearities.These models are validated through a wheel radial loading test.Based on the validated FE model,the paper uncovers the relationship between load and radial deformation of the road wheel,forming the basis for a nonlinear mathematical model.Subsequently,a half-car model of a tracked vehicle with seven degrees of freedom is established using Newton's second law.A random road model,considering the track effect and employing white noise,is constructed.The study concludes by examining the ride comfort of tracked vehicles equipped with flexible and rigid road wheels under various speeds and road grades.The results demonstrate that,in comparison to the rigid road wheel(RRW),the flexible road wheel enhances the ride comfort of tracked vehicles on randomly uneven roads.This research provides a theoretical foundation for the implementation of flexible road wheels in tracked vehicles.

High-speed tracked vehicle model order reduction for static and dynamic simulations

In this paper, a model order reduction strategy is adopted for the static and dynamic behaviour simulation of a high-speed tracked vehicle. The total number of degree of freedom of the structure is condensed through a selection of interface degrees of freedom and significant global mode shapes, for an approximated description of vehicle dynamic behaviour. The methodology is implemented in a customised open-source software to reduce the computational efforts. The modelled tracked vehicle includes the sprung mass, the unsprung masses, connected by means of torsional bars, and all the track assemblies, composing the track chain. The proposed research activity presents a comprehensive investigation of the influence of the track chain, combined with longitudinal vehicle speed, on statics and vehicle dynamics, focusing on vertical dynamics. The vehicle response has been investigated both in frequency and time domain. In this last case road-wheel displacements are assumed as inputs for the model, under different working conditions, hence considering several road profiles with different amplitudes and characteristic excitation frequencies. Simulation results have proven a high fidelity in model order reduction approach and a significant contribution of the track chain in the global dynamic behaviour of the tracked vehicle.

Multiparameter Numerical Investigation of Two Types of Moving Interactions Between the Deep-Sea Mining Vehicle Track Plate and Seabed Soil:Digging and Rotating Motions

To ensure the safe performance of deep-sea mining vehicles(DSMVs),it is necessary to study the mechanical characteristics of the interaction between the seabed soil and the track plate.The rotation and digging motions of the track plate are important links in the contact between the driving mechanism of the DSMV and seabed soil.In this study,a numerical simulation is conducted using the coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian(CEL)large deformation numerical method to investigate the interaction between the track plate of the DSMV and the seabed soil under two working conditions:rotating condition and digging condition.First,a soil numerical model is established based on the elastoplastic mechanical characterization using the basic physical and mechanical properties of the seabed soil obtained by in situ sampling.Subsequently,the soil disturbance mechanism and the dynamic mechanical response of the track plate under rotating and digging conditions are obtained through the analysis of the sensitivity of the motion parameters,the grouser structure,the layered soil features and the soil heterogeneity.The results indicate that the above parameters remarkably influence the interaction between the DSMV and the seabed soil.Therefore,it is important to consider the rotating and digging motion of the DSMV in practical engineering to develop a detailed optimization design of the track plate.

Trajectory Tracking of Autonomous Vehicle with the Fusion of DYC and Longitudinal–Lateral Control

The current research of autonomous vehicle motion control mainly focuses on trajectory tracking and velocity tracking. However, numerous studies deal with trajectory tracking and velocity tracking separately, and the yaw stability is seldom considered during trajectory tracking. In this research, a combination of the longitudinal–lateral control method with the yaw stability in the trajectory tracking for autonomous vehicles is studied. Based on the vehicle dynamics, considering the longitudinal and lateral motion of the vehicle, the velocity tracking and trajectory tracking problems can be attributed to the longitudinal and lateral control. A sliding mode variable structure control method is used in the longitudinal control. The total driving force is obtained from the velocity error in order to carry out velocity tracking. A linear time-varying model predictive control method is used in the lateral control to predict the required front wheel angle for trajectory tracking. Furthermore, a combined control framework is established to control the longitudinal and lateral motions and improve the reliability of the longitudinal and lateral direction control. On this basis, the driving force of a tire is allocated reasonably by using the direct yaw moment control, which ensures good yaw stability of the vehicle when tracking the trajectory. Simulation results indicate that the proposed control strategy is good in tracking the reference velocity and trajectory and improves the performance of the stability of the vehicle.

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.

Neural Network Based Robust Controller for Trajectory Tracking of Underwater Vehicles

A robust neural network controller （NNC） is presented for tracking control of underwater vehicles with uncertainties. The controller is obtained by using backstepping technique and Lyapunov function design in combination with neural network identification. Modeling errors and environmental disturbances are considered in the mathematical model. A twolayer neural network is introduced to compensate the modeling errors, while H∞ control strategy is used to achieve the L2-gain performance. The uniformly ultimately bounded （UUB） stabilities of tracking errors and NN weights are guaran- teed through the proposed controller. An on-line NN weights tuning algorithm is also propesed. Good performances of the tracking control system are illustrated bv the results of numerical simulations.

Tracking control for air-breathing hypersonic cruise vehicle based on tangent linearization approach

This paper is focused on developing a tracking controller for a hypersonic cruise vehicle using tangent linearization approach.The design of flight control systems for air-breathing hypersonic vehicles is a highly challenging task due to the unique characteristics of the vehicle dynamics.Motivated by recent results on tangent linearization control,the tracking control problem for the hypersonic cruise vehicle is reduced to that of a feedback stabilizing controller design for a linear time-varying system which can be accomplished by a standard design method of frozen-time control.Through a proper model transformation,it can be proven that the tracking error of the designed closed-loop system decays exponentially.Simulation studies are conducted for trimmed cruise conditions of 110000 ft and Mach 15 where the responses of the vehicle to step changes in altitude and velocity are evaluated.The effectiveness of the controller is demonstrated by simulation results.

Local Path Planning and Tracking Control of Vehicle Collision Avoidance System

Automotive collision avoidance technology can effectively avoid the accidents caused by dangerous traffic conditions or driver's manipulation errors.Moreover,it can promote the development of autonomous driving for intelligent vehicle in intelligent transportation.We present a collision avoidance system,which is composed of an evasive trajectory planner and a path following controller.Considering the stability of the vehicle in the conflict-free process,the evasive trajectory planner is designed by polynomial parametric method and optimized by genetic algorithm.The path following controller is proposed to make the car drive along the designed path by controlling the vehicle's lateral movement.Simulation results show that the vehicle with the proposed controller has good stability in the collision process,and it can ensure the vehicle driving in accordance with the planned trajectory at different speeds.The research results can provide a certain basis for the research and development of automotive collision avoidance technology.

Modeling and Trajectory Tracking Control for Flapping-Wing Micro Aerial Vehicles

This paper studies the trajectory tracking problem of flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles(FWMAVs)in the longitudinal plane.First of all,the kinematics and dynamics of the FWMAV are established,wherein the aerodynamic force and torque generated by flapping wings and the tail wing are explicitly formulated with respect to the flapping frequency of the wings and the degree of tail wing inclination.To achieve autonomous tracking,an adaptive control scheme is proposed under the hierarchical framework.Specifically,a bounded position controller with hyperbolic tangent functions is designed to produce the desired aerodynamic force,and a pitch command is extracted from the designed position controller.Next,an adaptive attitude controller is designed to track the extracted pitch command,where a radial basis function neural network is introduced to approximate the unknown aerodynamic perturbation torque.Finally,the flapping frequency of the wings and the degree of tail wing inclination are calculated from the designed position and attitude controllers,respectively.In terms of Lyapunov's direct method,it is shown that the tracking errors are bounded and ultimately converge to a small neighborhood around the origin.Simulations are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

MPC-based path tracking with PID speed control for high-speed autonomous vehicles considering time-optimal travel

In order to track the desired path as fast as possible,a novel autonomous vehicle path tracking based on model predictive control(MPC)and PID speed control was proposed for high-speed automated vehicles considering the constraints of vehicle physical limits,in which a forward-backward integration scheme was introduced to generate a time-optimal speed profile subject to the tire-road friction limit.Moreover,this scheme was further extended along one moving prediction window.In the MPC controller,the prediction model was an 8-degree-of-freedom(DOF)vehicle model,while the plant was a 14-DOF vehicle model.For lateral control,a sequence of optimal wheel steering angles was generated from the MPC controller;for longitudinal control,the total wheel torque was generated from the PID speed controller embedded in the MPC framework.The proposed controller was implemented in MATLAB considering arbitrary curves of continuously varying curvature as the reference trajectory.The simulation test results show that the tracking errors are small for vehicle lateral and longitudinal positions and the tracking performances for trajectory and speed are good using the proposed controller.Additionally,the case of extended implementation in one moving prediction window requires shorter travel time than the case implemented along the entire path.

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.

Comparative Study of Trajectory Tracking Control for Automated Vehicles via Model Predictive Control and Robust H-infinity State Feedback Control

A comparative study of model predictive control(MPC)schemes and robust Hstate feedback control(RSC)method for trajectory tracking is proposed in this paper.The main objective of this paper is to compare MPC and RSC controllers’performance in tracking predefined trajectory under different scenarios.MPC controller is designed based on the simple longitudinal-yaw-lateral motions of a single-track vehicle with a linear tire,which is an approximation of the more realistic model of a vehicle with double-track motion with a non-linear tire mode.RSC is designed on the basis of the same method as adopted for the MPC controller to achieve a fair comparison.Then,three test cases are built in CarSim-Simulink joint platform.Specifically,the verification test is used to test the tracking accuracy of MPC and RSC controller under well road conditions.Besides,the double lane change test with low road adhesion is designed to find the maximum velocity that both controllers can carry out while guaranteeing stability.Furthermore,an extreme curve test is built where the road adhesion changes suddenly,in order to test the performance of both controllers under extreme conditions.Finally,the advantages and disadvantages of MPC and RSC under different scenarios are also discussed.

Trajectory tracking control for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles with dynamic uncertainties

The trajectory tracking control problem for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles(USV) was addressed, and the control system took account of the uncertain influences induced by model perturbation, external disturbance, etc. By introducing the reference, trajectory was generated by a virtual USV, and the error equation of trajectory tracking for USV was obtained, which transformed the tracking problem of underactuated USV into the stabilization problem of the trajectory tracking error equation. A backstepping adaptive sliding mode controller was proposed based on backstepping technology and method of dynamic slide model control. By means of theoretical analysis, it is proved that the proposed controller ensures that the solutions of closed loop system have the ultimate boundedness property. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

Adaptive Coordinated Path Tracking Control Strategy for Autonomous Vehicles with Direct Yaw Moment Control

It is a striking fact that the path tracking accuracy of autonomous vehicles based on active front wheel steering is poor under high-speed and large-curvature conditions.In this study,an adaptive path tracking control strategy that coordinates active front wheel steering and direct yaw moment is proposed based on model predictive control algorithm.The recursive least square method with a forgetting factor is used to identify the rear tire cornering stiffness and update the path tracking system prediction model.To adaptively adjust the priorities of path tracking accuracy and vehicle stability,an adaptive strategy based on fuzzy rules is applied to change the weight coefficients in the cost function.An adaptive control strategy for coordinating active front steering and direct yaw moment is proposed to improve the path tracking accuracy under high-speed and large-curvature conditions.To ensure vehicle stability,the sideslip angle,yaw rate and zero moment methods are used to construct optimization constraints based on the model predictive control frame.It is verified through simulation experiments that the proposed adaptive coordinated control strategy can improve the path tracking accuracy and ensure vehicle stability under high-speed and largecurvature conditions.

Nonlinear trajectory tracking control of a new autonomous underwater vehicle in complex sea conditions

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) navigating in complex sea conditions usually require a strong control system to keep the fastness and stability. The nonlinear trajectory tracking control system of a new AUV in complex sea conditions was presented. According to the theory of submarines,the six-DOF kinematic and dynamic models were decomposed into two mutually non-coupled vertical and horizontal plane subsystems. Then,different sliding mode control algorithms were used to study the trajectory tracking control. Because the yaw angle and yaw angle rate rather than the displacement of the new AUV can be measured directly on the horizontal plane,the sliding mode control algorithm combining cross track error method and line of sight method was used to fulfill its high-precision trajectory tracking control in the complex sea conditions. As the vertical displacement of the new AUV can be measured,in order to achieve the tracking of time-varying depth signal,a stable sliding mode controller was designed based on the single-input multi-state system,which took into account the characteristic of the hydroplane and the amplitude and rate constraints of the hydroplane angle. Moreover,the application of dynamic boundary layer can improve the robustness and control accuracy of the system. The computational results show that the designed sliding mode control systems of the horizontal and vertical planes can ensure the trajectory tracking performance and accuracy of the new AUV in complex sea conditions. The impacts of currents and waves on the sliding mode controller of the new AUV were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by comparing the trajectory tracking performance of the new AUV in different sea conditions,which provides an effective theoretical guidance and technical support for the control system design of the new AUV in real complex environment.

Reference tracking control for flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicle with actuator delay and uncertainty

This paper considers the problem of reference tracking control for the flexible air-breathing hypersonic flight vehicle with actuator delay and uncertainty.By constructing the Lyapunov functional including the lower and upper bounds of the time-varying delay,the non-fragile controller is designed such that the resulting closed-loop system is asymptotically stable and satisfies a prescribed performance cost index.The simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed control method,which is validated by excellent output reference altitude and velocity tracking performance.

Implementation of MPC-Based Trajectory Tracking Considering Different Fidelity Vehicle Models

In order to investigate how model fidelity in the formulation of model predictive control(MPC)algorithm affects the path tracking performance,a bicycle model and an 8 degrees of freedom(DOF)vehicle model,as well as a 14-DOF vehicle model were employed to implement the MPC-based path tracking controller considering the constraints of input limit and output admissibility by using a lower fidelity vehicle model to control a higher fidelity vehicle model.In the MPC controller,the nonlinear vehicle model was linearized and discretized for state prediction and vehicle heading angle,lateral position and longitudinal position were chosen as objectives in the cost function.The wheel step steering and sine wave steering responses between the developed vehicle models and the Carsim model were compared for validation before implementing the model predictive path tracking control.The simulation results of trajectory tracking considering an 8-shaped curved reference path were presented and compared when the prediction model and the plant were changed.The results show that the trajectory tracking errors are small and the tracking performances of the proposed controller considering different complexity vehicle models are good in the curved road environment.Additionally,the MPC-based controller formulated with a high-fidelity model performs better than that with a low-fidelity model in the trajectory tracking.