Time-Varying Gain-Scheduled Path-Tracking Controller with Delay Compensation (TGDC) for Autonomous Vehicles

Path-tracking control occupies a critical role within autonomous driving systems, directly reflecting vehicle motion and impacting both safety and user experience. However, the ever-changing vehicle states, road conditions, and delay characteristics of control systems present new challenges to the path tracking of autonomous vehicles, thereby limiting further enhancements in performance. This article introduces a path-tracking controller, time-varying gain-scheduled path-tracking controller with delay compensation (TGDC), which utilizes a linear parameter-varying system and optimal control theory to account for time-varying vehicle states, road conditions, and steering control system delays. Subsequently, a polytopic-based path-tracking model is applied to design the control law, reducing the computational complexity of TGDC. To evaluate the effectiveness and real-time capability of TGDC, it was tested under a series of complex conditions using a hardware-in-the-loop platform. The results demonstrate that through the polytopic-based path-tracking model and delay compensation strategy in TGDC, it can effectively enhance path-tracking performance with minimal computational load, even under conditions of parameter variability and control delays.