Vehicle lateral controller design exploiting properties of SITO systems

In this paper the problem of lateral vehicle control in highway experimental conditions is addressed. The vehicle under consideration is equipped with an electric motor acting on the steering angle (the command input) and a vision system providing two measurements (the two outputs): the lateral displacement and the angular orientation of the vehicle with respect to the lane centerline. We show how, exploiting properties of single-input two-outputs systems, our original SITO control problem can be simplified to the design of a SISO controller. Experimental results obtained testing the designed controller on highways are reported.