Path Tracking for Autonomous Race Car Based on G-G Diagram

Currently, the autonomous driving technique is attracting increasing research focus from all over the world. Generally, the control systems of an autonomous vehicle include environment perception, path planning and path tracking control systems. In this paper, the path tracking control issue of the autonomous vehicle will be focused on. Few of the previous proposed path tracking controllers consider the vehicle driving and handling limit, which degenerates the potential of the autonomous vehicle to finish the desired path as quick as possible. To this end, this paper proposes a path tracking controller for autonomous vehicle, which aims at pushing it to the driving and handling limit. The limit dynamic performance of the autonomous vehicle is represented by the G-G diagram, which indicates the acceleration capability of the autonomous vehicle. The G-G diagram is obtained by phase portrait method and it is validated by a modified FSAE racing car. Finally, a path tracking controller based on the G-G diagram is proposed. The simulation validation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.