Automobile steering autopilot with lane change capability

A steering autopilot with preview actions is designed for control of a four-wheel steering vehicle and analyzed for application to lane change of the vehicle at variable speeds. The steering autopilot design is formulated as an optimal, discrete-time preview path tracking problem under perfect measurement of the lateral deviation from the track, and the front and rear steering angles. The authors' studies indicate that a high performance autopilot controller can be incorporated into a modern vehicle. The main cost would be steering actuators, sensors to measure steering angles and vehicle lateral deviation, and road markers to facilitate the lateral deviation and road curvature measurement.