Path Tracking Control for Differential Drive Robots Using Lane Recognition

In this paper, we introduce path tracking control of a differential drive robot with two wheels on the left and right sides. The proposed path tracking control algorithm aims to steer the robot to follow a target path using drive motors attached to the left and right wheels. In typical autonomous driving situations, differential drive robots perform path tracking based on lane recognition information from camera sensors. In situations when lane recognition is impossible, such as driving at night or a camera sensor failure, the system switches to a map-based path tracking method to enable safe autonomous driving of differential drive robots. The proposed path tracking control algorithm is implemented based on robot operating system 2 (ROS 2). The performance of the proposed control scheme is evaluated through experiment-based comparisons with other path tracking methods.