Ribbon model based path tracking method for autonomous ground vehicles

Abstract

To resolve the path tracking problem of autonomous ground vehicles, an analysis of existing path tracking methods was carried out and an important conclusion was got. The vehicle-road model is crucial for path following. Based on the conclusion, a new vehicle-road model named “ribbon model” was constructed with consideration of road width and vehicle geometry structure. A new vehicle-road evaluation algorithm was proposed based on this model, and a new path tracking controller including a steering controller and a speed controller was designed. The difficulties of preview distance selection and parameters tuning with speed in the pure following controller are avoided in this controller. To verify the performance of the novel method, simulation and real vehicle experiments were carried out. Experimental results show that the path tracking controller can keep the vehicle in the road running as fast as possible, so it can adjust the control strategy, such as safety, amenity, and rapidity criteria autonomously according to the road situation. This is important for the controller to adapt to different kinds of environments, and can improve the performance of autonomous ground vehicles significantly.