Automatic Parallel Parking in Tiny Spots: Path Planning and Control

This paper presents automatic parallel parking for a passenger vehicle, with highlights on a path-planning method and on experimental results. The path-planning method consists of two parts. First, the kinematic model of the vehicle, with corresponding geometry, is used to create a path to park the vehicle in one or more maneuvers if the spot is very narrow. This path is constituted of circle arcs. Second, this path is transformed into a continuous-curvature path using clothoid curves. To execute the generated path, control inputs for steering angle and longitudinal velocity depending on the traveled distance are generated. Therefore, the traveled distance and the vehicle pose during a parking maneuver are estimated. Finally, the parking performance is tested on a prototype vehicle.