A Principle of Trajectory Planning for an Autonomous Vehicle

In this paper, a proposition about the relationship between path curve and cart motion is proposed and proved. Based on the proposition, the cubic polynomial is provided as a transition path. This is convenient for designing the trajectory and uniqueness for determining parameters of the path curves by the allowable minimal turn radius of cart. Experimental results, performed on the prototype cart, show that the cart tracks given paths with the cubic polynomial as a transition smoothly and accurately.