Optimal Velocity Control Method in Path Following Control Problem

Path following control problem is treated in recent years. In many past results of path following control, it is assumed the plant has single-input and the velocity of the plant is considered as constant value. However, when we have to reduce traveling time, we must control velocity of the plant in tracking problem. In this paper, velocity control and path following task are achieved at the same time by optimal control. To achieve these tasks, we assume multi-input plants are given. Since sum of reaching time and input costs is used as a cost, we can obtain good acceleration and deceleration input. By a constraint for the cost function, the error from the plant to a given reference path goes to zero when time goes to infinity. The effectiveness of the proposed method is examined by numerical examples of an automobile model.