Path-tracking for car-like robots with single and double steering

A procedure for the design of path-tracking controllers for car-like robots is proposed which is based on a formalization of the notion of path-tracking that is traditional in automotive applications. The advantage of this procedure over current methods is that it is applicable to a larger class of vehicles (car-like robots with single or double steering), to more general paths (in particular, circular paths), and to a tracking velocity that is not necessarily constant. When the path is a straight line or a circular arc, the tracking offsets are small and the assigned velocity is constant, then the proposed procedure leads to a controller with a linear, time-invariant, and decoupled PID (proportional, integral, and derivative) structure.<
>