Design of an automated highway systems steering actuator control system

Researchers all around the world have been working on automated highway systems (AHS) for some time. Recently the National Highway System Consortium (NAHSC) formed by Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH), Carnegie Mellon University, General Motors and Lockheed Martin is conducting the system definition phase of the AHS program in partnership with the United States Department of Transportation. This consists of a demonstration of about 13 vehicles platooning on a portion of I-15 in California without driver input. The vehicles are supposed to do lane keeping, and maintain a certain distance from the previous vehicle. AHS consists of many different subsystems such as steering, throttle, brake, etc that is vital for a safe AHS operation. Delphi Saginaw Steering is responsible for supplying the steering actuator system. This report outlines the controls compensation schemes that had to be implemented in the AHS (PATH) car to meet the specifications given by PATH. The basic configuration of the system, and some of the modeling efforts for matching the model to the actual plant data using Xmath and its graphical user interface capability are explained. The compensator was implemented in the rapid prototyping controller (C-30). Later on the algorithm was implemented in the production intent controller. The systems are currently being tested in California