Abstract:
Automation technologies are bringing revolutionary changes in the world. Autonomous
driving is subject to extensive academic research and heavy investments in the corporate
sector. Reliable autonomous urban driving hinges upon vehicle control system which enable
autonomous actuation of the vehicle. The objective of this project is to design the
longitudinal and lateral control for the prototype vehicle of NUSTAG Self Driving Car
project. The research of the project is aimed at modeling, system identification and control
design for lateral and longitudinal vehicle motion. The major areas of this research include:
i) vehicle modeling and system identification, ii) vehicle longitudinal control, iii) vehicle
lateral control. Dynamic modeling techniques on half car and a bicycle model have been
utilized to model vehicle’s longitudinal and lateral performances while, electronic equations
of motors are used to formulate motor actuator behavior. The low-level steering model has
been constructed on a 6-bar-linkage performing Ackerman steering. System identification is
done by finding vehicle and motor parameters involved in the models. The desired path to
be followed by the vehicle was precomputed. PID control scheme has been extensively
applied to control the low-level throttle and steering, whereas an approach for LQR control
scheme is made to make a high-level controller for vehicle’s steering. Suitable results are
achieved after tuning of the controllers which can tested and further tuned by practical
experimentation for real-time controller application purposes.
