A novel path tracking controller for ackerman steering vehicles

In this paper, a path tracking controller for autonomous driving is presented. The path tracking problem involves the solution of two disparate subproblems: a trajectory optimization problem and a trajectory tracking control problem. The trajectories here are generated by discretizing the steering control space with taking the environmental and kinematic constraints into account. The optimal trajectory is determined based on the discretized steering control space by minimizing a cost function. Different from typical path tracking controllers, the proposed controller ensures that vehicles are able to drive within a preferred corridor freely rather than track the predefined geometric path restrictively. Tracking control law is designed based on an inner model control framework. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control law is demonstrated by the simulation experiments.