On The Design Of Nonlinear Path Control In Automated Vehicle Guidance

A new and efficient method to stabilize an autonomously guided vehicle on desired trajectories under varying conditions is presented. Besides the task to improve safety in traffic, aspects of road behaviour and traveling comfort are especially considered. Since dynamical behaviour of a vehicle is highly nonlinear and contains mutual couplings in the state variables, design of the path control system is based on the universally valid principle of nonlinear decoupling and control. As this method works independent from operating points a high degree of accuracy and free pole assignment for the controlled vehicle is provided. Further a configuration is described, which causes damping of the yaw behaviour during high velocity cornering.