Robust Path Following Control at Driving/Handling Limits of an Autonomous Electric Racecar

• Published in: IEEE transactions on vehicular technology Vol. 68; no. 6; pp. 5518 - 5526
• Main Authors: Ni, Jun, Hu, Jibin, Xiang, Changle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.06.2019; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Acceleration; autonomous racecar; Autonomous vehicle; Chassis; Competition; Control systems design; Controllers; experiment; Force; H-infinity control; Land vehicles; Nickel; Output feedback; path following; Race cars; Robust control; Tires; Trajectory planning; Uncertainty; Unmanned ground vehicles; Vehicle dynamics
• ISSN: 0018-9545; 1939-9359
• DOI: 10.1109/TVT.2019.2911862

This paper proposes a robust path following controller that aims to controlling the autonomous ground vehicle to the handling and driving limits, which is demonstrated by an autonomous racecar. As a worldwide competition for autonomous racecar, the formula student autonomous competition (FSAC) is introduced. The autonomous racecar developed by the authors, who won the champion of the 2017 FSAC, is also introduced. As the key of control framework, an integrated longitudinal/lateral controller is proposed, which is supposed to control the autonomous racecar to the limits on the random racetrack. The longitudinal controller is based on the G-G diagram, which is proposed in our previous work. The lateral controller is designed based on the robust H-infinity output-feedback approach. The particular uncertainties and disturbances of the autonomous racecar, which are caused by limit driving or chassis adjustments, are considered in the controller design. Finally, the proposed controller is demonstrated on the self-developed autonomous racecar. The experimental results on a random wet racetrack are discussed to show the efficiency and robustness of the proposed controller.