Nonlinear feedback control and trajectory tracking of vehicle

Abstract

This paper mainly studies nonlinear feedback control applied to the nonlinear vehicle dynamics with varying velocity. The main objective of this study is the stabilisation of longitudinal, lateral and yaw angular vehicle velocities. To this end, a nonlinear vehicle model is developed which takes both the lateral and longitudinal vehicle dynamics into account. Based on this model, a method to build a nonlinear state feedback control is first designed by which the complexity of system structure can be simplified. The obtained system is then synthesised by the combined Lyapunov–LaSalle method. The simulation results show that the proposed control can improve stability and comfort of vehicle driving. Moreover, this paper presents a lemma which ensures the trajectory tracking and path-following problem for vehicle. It can also be exploited simultaneously to solve both the tracking and path-following control problems of the vehicle ride and driving stability. We also show how the results of the lemma can be applied to solve the path-following problem, in which the vehicle converges and follows a designed path. The effectiveness of the proposed lemma for trajectory tracking is clearly demonstrated by simulation results.

Keywords:

• modeling
• nonlinear feedback
• nonlinear control
• trajectory tracking
• stabilisation
• nonlinearities
• simulation

Notes

1. Det(.) indicate the determinant and ||.|| represent the euclidean norm.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Younés Abbassi

Younès Abbassi received the MS degree in computer science and automatic control engineering from the Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Belfort (ENIB), France in 1996. He received the PhD degree in automatic control engineering from Belfort-Montbéliard University of Technology (UTBM), France in 2007. His research interests include vehicle system dynamics, nonlinear dynamics and control.

Youcef Ait-Amirat

Youcef Ait-Amirat got the Dipl Ing degree in 1989 from the Ecole Nationale Polytechnique d’Alger, Algeria. He also got the PhD degree in 1994 from the University of Claude Bernard at Lyon, France. Since 1995 he is an assistant professor at the University of Franche-comté in France. He is a member of Femto-ST Laboratory. His current research interest focuses on the study of systems and control theory, in general, and in particular, applied to the field of electrical power management for hybrid and electrical vehicles.

Rachid Outbib

Rachid Outbib received his PhD degree in applied mathematics in 1994 and his HDR degree in automatics control in 1998, respectively, from University of Metz and University of Amiens, France. He was a full professor at the University of Technology at Belfort, France, from 2003 to 2006. Since 2007, he is a full professor at the University of Aix-Marseille, France. He is head of ESCODI, a team of LSIS laboratory. His main research interests concern nonlinear systems methods with applications to fluid power, automotive and energetic systems.