A Novel Fuzzy Observer-Based Steering Control Approach for Path Tracking in Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

In this paper, the problem of steering control is investigated for vehicle path tracking in the presence of parametric uncertainties and nonlinearities. In practice, the vehicle mass varies due to the number of passengers or amount of payload, while the vehicle velocity also changes during normal cruising, which significantly influences vehicle dynamics. Moreover, the vehicle dynamics are strongly nonlinear caused by the tire/road forces under different road surface conditions. With fuzzy modeling method, the original nonlinear path tracking system with parameter variations is first formulated as a T–S fuzzy model with additive norm-bounded uncertainties, and then an approach to the fuzzy observer-based output feedback steering control for vehicle dynamics is proposed under a fuzzy Lyapunov function framework. By employing matrix inequality convexifying techniques, a sufficient condition is developed in the form of linear matrix inequalities such that the closed-loop path tracking error system is asymptotically stable with a guaranteed $\mathcal {H}_{\infty }$ level. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed fuzzy observer-based output feedback controller is demonstrated in Carsim/Matlab joint simulation environment, via which the advantage of a T–S fuzzy observer-based output controller over the closed-loop driver model embedded in Carsim is also shown with parametric uncertainties and nonlinearities.