Optimal Steering and Braking Control in Emergency Obstacle Avoidance

Optimal steering and braking control for automobiles in emergency obstacle avoidance situation is investigated. The obstacle avoidance problem is formulated as a nonlinear optimal control problem to minimize a performance function consists of the time integral of squared tire workload and control effort. A numerical optimization method is applied to calculate the optimal steering and braking inputs. The optimum controls are calculated for several distances to the obstacle. The relationship between distance to the obstacle and the maximum initial velocity to enable the obstacle avoidance is investigated. From these results, the optimal usage of the control inputs in emergency obstacle avoidance situation is discussed.