A Vehicle-Independent Autonomous Lane Keeping and Path Tracking System

Abstract

This paper describes a lateral controller for path following developed to work on a wide range of vehicles without any changes in tuning between platforms. This vehicle independent path following controller employs a cascaded adaptive architecture, with the outer loop controlling the path dynamics and the inner loop controlling the vehicle dynamics. The controller is validated on four vehicle models in simulation at a variety of speeds. The controller is then implemented and validated in real-time on a Lincoln MKZ, a Class-8 Peterbilt 579 cab, a Peterbilt 579 with a loaded trailer, and a 1/10 th scale RC car. The controller is shown to perform well on the four simulated vehicles and the four experimental platforms at a range of longitudinal speeds, matching or exceeding human performance with consistent and smooth steering.