This paper considers the parallel parking problem of automatic front-wheel steering vehicles. The problem of stabilizing the vehicle at desired position and orientation is seen as an extension of the tracking problem. A saturated control is proposed which achieves quick steering of the system near the desired position of the parking spot with desired orientation and can be successfully used in solving parking problems. In addition, in order to obtain larger area of the starting positions of the vehicle with respect to the parking spot for the first reverse maneuver of the parallel parking, an approach of using saturated control with two different levels of saturation is proposed. The vehicle can be automatically parked by using one or multiple maneuvers, depending on the size of the parking spot. Simulation results are presented to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.

In this paper, we present a mathematical model and adaptive controller for an autonomous vehicle overtaking maneuver. We consider the problem of an autonomous three-phase overtaking without the use of any roadway marking scheme or intervehicle communication. The developed feedback controller requires information for the current relative intervehicle position and orientation, which are assumed to be available from onboard sensors. We apply standard robotic nomenclature for translational and rotational displacements and velocities and propose a general kinematic model of the vehicles and the relative intervehicle kinematics during the overtaking maneuver. The overtaking maneuver is investigated as a tracking problem with respect to desired polynomial virtual trajectories for every phase, which are generated in real time. An update control law for the automated overtaking vehicle is designed that allows tracking the desired trajectories in the presence of unknown velocity of the overtaken vehicle. Simulation results illustrate the performance of the proposed controller.

In this paper, we present a two-layer nonlinear adaptive steering controller for autonomous lane change maneuver with respect to a stopped vehicle. First, we derive a dynamic model of the vehicle using the Boltzmann-Hamel method in quasi-coordinates for nonholonomic systems. The lane change maneuver is investigated as a tracking problem with respect to desired cycloidal trajectory, which is generated in real time. An adaptive update control law is designed that allows tracking the desired trajectories in the presence of unknown inertial parameters of the vehicle. Simulation results illustrate the performance of the proposed controller.

In this paper, we present the architecture of an innovative docking station for electric vehicles recharging and a hybrid control scheme for automatic docking of the vehicles. This work is a part of on-going project concerning the development of a smart charging station for electric vehicles equipped with an automated arm, which connect the vehicle to the charging station, and an infrared beacon system for localizing the automatically maneuvering vehicle in the docking area. The proposed control scheme combines time-optimal (bang-bang) control with continuous time-invariant nonlinear control, which stabilizes the vehicle to a small neighborhood of the docking point. Simulation and experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

This paper proposes a feedback path controller for an articulated load-haul-dump (LHD) mining vehicle. First, we develop a kinematic model of the vehicle in error coordinates expressed in a moving reference frame, which is partially linked to the vehicle. We give a change of coordinates and input combined with a new variable instead of the time-index that transform the original system into a form that can be viewed as a perturbation of a nominal linear time-invariant system. The nonlinear term in the perturbed system satisfies a linear growth bound. Subsequently, linear control feedback is applied to the full nonlinear system and local exponential stability of the closed-loop perturbed system is achieved. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

This paper proposes a nonlinear feedback path controller for a skid-steering mining vehicle. The dynamic model of the vehicle is derived using the Boltzmann-Hamel formalism. The control design utilizes the computed torque type technique combined with an auxiliary continuous static state feedback, which involves error coordinates expressed in a moving reference frame partially linked to the vehicle. Assuming that the lateral friction forces caused by the skidding of the wheels are not exactly known, the last part of the paper is centered on the analysis of the effect of Coulomb friction on the behaviour of the system. Asymptotic stabilization of the equilibrium set is achieved for the closed-loop system with discontinuous right-hand side.

This paper addresses the parking problem of a load-haul-dump (LHD) mine vehicle. The proposed controller stabilizes the configuration coordinates of the vehicle to an arbitrary small neighborhood of the origin. A specific feature of the control scheme is that the location of the reference point of the vehicle depends on the direction of motion. The control law is designed by Lyapunov techniques and relies on transforming a part of the system equations into chained form. The hybrid strategy combines a trajectory tracking control law until the lateral and orientation errors reach a sufficiently small prescribed magnitude with a time-invariant stabilizer to bring to zero the longitudinal error. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.