Non-linear Control based on State Estimation for the Convoy of Autonomous Vehicles

International audienceIn this paper, a longitudinal and lateral control approach based on a nonlinear observer is proposed for a convoy of autonomous vehicles to follow a desired trajectory. To authors best knowledge, this topic has not yet been sufficiently addressed in the literature. The modeling of the vehicles convoy is revisited using robotic method, for simulation purposes and control design. With these models, a sliding mode observer is proposed to estimate the states of each vehicle in the convoy from the available sensors, then a sliding mode control based on this observer is used to control the longitudinal and lateral movement. The validation and performance evaluation are done using the well-known driving simulator Scanner-Studio. The results are presented for different maneuvers of 5 vehicles

Decentralized Near-to-Near Approach for Vehicle Platooning based on Memorization and Heuristic Search

International audienceThis paper deals with vehicle platooning, where a convoy aims at following closely and safely its leader's path without collision nor lateral deviation. In this paper, we propose a platooning algorithm based on a near-to-near decentralized approach. Each vehicle estimates and memorizes on-line the path of its predecessor as a set of points. After choosing a suitable position to aim for, the follower estimates on-line the predecessor's path curvature around the selected target. Then, based on a heuristic search, it computes an angular velocity using the estimated curvature. The optimization criteria used in this work allows the robot to follow its predecessor's path without oscillation while reducing the lateral and angular errors