TS-MPC for Autonomous Vehicles Including a TS-MHE-UIO Estimator

In this paper, a novel approach is presented to solve the trajectory tracking problem for autonomous vehicles. This approach is based on the use of a cascade control where the external loop solves the position control using a novel Takagi Sugeno-Model Predictive Control (TS-MPC) approach and the internal loop is in charge of the dynamic control of the vehicle using a Takagi Sugeno-Linear Quadratic Regulator technique designed via Linear Matrix Inequalities (TS-LMI-LQR). Both techniques use a TS representation of the kinematic and dynamic models of the vehicle. In addition, a novel Takagi-Sugeno estimator-Moving Horizon Estimator-Unknown Input Observer (TS-MHE-UIO) is presented. This method estimates the dynamic states of the vehicle optimally as well as the force of friction acting on the vehicle that is used to reduce the control efforts. The innovative contribution of the TS-MPC and TS-MHE-UIO techniques is that using the TS model formulation of the vehicle allows us to solve the nonlinear problem as if it were linear, reducing computation times by 10-20 times. To demonstrate the potential of the TS-MPC, we propose a comparison between three methods of solving the kinematic control problem: Using the nonlinear MPC formulation (NL-MPC) with compensated friction force, the TS-MPC approach with compensated friction force, and TS-MPC without compensated friction force.