A locomotion control method for autonomous vehicles

The authors present a locomotion control method for autonomous vehicles. The main difficulties in controlling an autonomous vehicle lie in the fact that vehicles usually have three degrees of freedom in position and orientation in spite of having only two degrees of freedom for motion control. To use any find of path for vehicle navigation, the authors control a vehicle in a tracking mode. Decomposition of error between the reference posture and the current posture makes control of speed and steering possible. The locomotion control system works as a flexible interface between the path planner and the motor-wheel system