Lateral Trajectory Tracking Control using Backstepping Method for Autonomous Vehicles

One of the challenging problems in designing a lateral trajectory tracking control is to bring both the lateral error from the desired trajectory and the heading angle error to a minimum value at the same time. This paper presents a lateral trajectory tracking controller for autonomous vehicles using the powerful backstepping control method to track the desired trajectory and regulate the lateral and heading angle deviations of the vehicle from the desired trajectory. The controller was implemented based on the dynamical bicycle model, the model was modified by adding the errors dynamics as state variables and then converting it to the strict feedback form for the backstepping control implementation. Simulation results proved asymptotic stability of the system, excellent tracking of the desired trajectory, and excellent regulation of the lateral and heading angle deviations.