On-Road Path Generation and Control for Waypoints Tracking

This article addresses path generation and predictive control for waypoints tracking. By considering irregularity of waypoints given by the leading vehicle, the waypoints-following vehicle is made to track a clothoid path that assures safe and comfortable driving while keeping track of the waypoints in the least squares sense. In the generation of such a clothoid path, the path generation scheme utilized the clothoidal constraint and weighted least squares curve fitting. Predictive control is applied to improve path tracking performance over horizon, with constraints on steering and its rate being considered for safe and comfortable steering. A computational experiment, utilizing a set of leading vehicle generated waypoints on a highway, is conducted to demonstrate utility of the path generation and predictive control scheme.