Longitudinal and lateral control for autonomous ground vehicles

Robust and stable control is a requirement for navigation of self-driving cars. Some approaches in the literature depend on a high number of parameters that are often difficult to estimate. A poor selection of these parameters often reduces considerably the efficiency of the control algorithms. In this paper we propose a simplified control system for autonomous vehicles that depends on a reduced number of parameters that can be easily set. This control system is composed of longitudinal and lateral controllers. The longitudinal controller is responsible for regulating the vehicle´s cruise velocity while the lateral controller steers the vehicle´s wheels for path tracking. Simulated and experimental tests have been carried out with the CaRINA II platform in the university campus with positive results.