Preview Path Tracking Control for Autonomous Vehicle with Actuator Saturation

For autonomous ground vehicles, ignoring the actuator saturation problem caused by mechanical structure can lead to poor path tracking performance. In this paper, we propose a preview based path tracking control strategy, where actuator saturation is taken into account such that precise and computationally efficient path tracking performance is achieved. Both preview path model and actuator saturation model are integrated into the cost function, and a LQR based optimal controller is designed. Finally, the joint simulation experiments using Carsim and MATLAB show that the path tracking performance of autonomous ground vehicles with the proposed method is satisfactory.