Nonlinear H∞ Control of Autonomous Vehicles

The control problem of automotive vehicles is considered. Steering a car by hand means that the driver plans a path by preview and controls the lateral deviation of the vehicle from the planned path by the steering wheel. In an automatic car steering system, this path following is automated. The deviation is kept small by feedback control via the steering motors. The reference trajectory may be calculated from the data of a CCD camera and the compensation scheme will be derived by the data of a gyro or a GPS. Riding comfort is also an important factor for autonomous vehicles with passengers. In order to study automatic car steering and maintaining the stability of the car, the steering model must be extended. For the extended nonlinear steering model with output equation whose elements can be measured by equipped sensors, the nonlinear state feedback H∞ controller is introduced so that the vehicle can tracks the reference path and reduces angular accelarations.