Automatic vehicle steering controls: DGPS/INS and magnetic markers

This paper describes the process of designing a simple high-gain automatic steering controller for a passenger vehicle based on the control states obtained from the integrated carrier phase (CP) Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) aided inertial navigation system (INS) system. Applying the "look-ahead" principle developed for the magnetic marker based steering control system, the process results in very similar control laws for both sensing systems. The dynamic differences between feeding back the yaw angle (using two magnet sensors, or two GPS antennae) and feeding back heading angle (using one magnet sensor or one GPS antenna) are investigated in this paper. Results from the closed-loop steering control experiments for speeds up to 65 mph using the two-magnet-sensors and one-GPS-antenna configuration support the system analysis.