Coupled longitudinal and lateral control strategy improving lateral stability for autonomous vehicle

In this paper a coupled longitudinal and lateral control strategy for an autonomous automotive vehicle is proposed. The proposed control scheme consists of a lateral guidance module based on a NonLinear Model-based Predictive Controller (NLMPC) and a cruise speed generation and regulation module. A cruise speed-profile generator allows the calculation of the cruise speed which preserves the lateral stability of the vehicle during lateral maneuvers. The calculation of the cruise speed profile is done considering road geometry as well as lateral dynamics criteria. The handling of both longitudinal and lateral dynamics in addition to the calculation of the limit cruise speed profile by considering lateral stability criteria illustrate the interest of the proposed approach. The developed control architecture is tested through simulation and shows good performance for guidance at high cruise speeds.