Asymptotically stable path following for lateral motion of an unmanned ground vehicle

This study proposes an asymptotically stable path following controller for autonomous navigation of an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) using vector field and robust-integral-signum error (RISE) feedback. The path following controller is divided into two parts: one part generating a heading command and another part designing a robust control. To determine the reference heading command under various uncertainties, the vector field method is employed, and then the RISE feedback controller is designed to follow the heading command. Finally, experiments are conducted on paved and unpaved roads to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.