Output-feedback robust control for vehicle path tracking considering different human drivers' characteristics

A dynamic output-feedback, robust, shared controller considering different drivers' characteristics is proposed to assist human drivers for path tracking. The uncertain, diverse parameters for describing different drivers' characteristics including delay time, preview time, and steering proportional gain are considered and handled by a polytope. The regional pole placement is applied in the proposed dynamic output-feedback controller to improve the stability and performance of the driver-vehicle system. A method to convert the multi-objective H∞ robust control into the single objective control is also introduced. Simulation results indicate that performance of path following for the driver-vehicle systems with different human drivers are improved with the proposed controller. Meanwhile, physical workloads of the inexperienced drivers are significantly reduced. Simulation results also show that the delay time of the driver-vehicle system can be adjusted by the pole placement, and the preview time of the driver can also be reduced to some extent with the proposed controller. Robustness of the controller is preserved against parameter variations and disturbance.