Autonomous Driving of a Mobile Robot Using a Combined Multiple-Shooting and Collocation Method

A nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) approach for steering an autonomous mobile robot is presented. The vehicle dynamics with a counter steering system is described by a nonlinear bicycle model. The NMPC problem is formulated taking into account the obstacles description as inequality constraints which will be updated at each sampling time based on a laser scanner detection. The nonlinear optimal control problem (NOCP) is efficiently solved by a combined multiple-shooting and collocation method. Experimentation results illustrate the viability of our approach for active autonomous steering in avoiding spontaneous obstacles.