Null-space behavioral approach for car-like vehicles with application to intelligent transportation system

This paper presents a new control algorithm for the coordinated path following problem of car like vehicles. The vehicles are represented by an extended kinematic bicycle model which includes sideslip angles. A nonlinear control law has been designed using Lyapunov approach, and the controller implementation requires knowledge of sideslip angles. A Raghavan observer is introduced in order to observe the vehicle sideslip angles that are typically not directly measured in practice. Trajectory tracking tasks, such as, convergence to a desired path and moving at a desired speed, are defined, along with coordination objectives, such as collision avoidance. The main contribution of this paper stems from the inclusion of the extended kinematic bicycle model in the development, which provides a more accurate model at high speed maneuvers, and the expansion of the null space behavior (NSB) algorithm to the car-like vehicle. The stability of the coordinated path following controller is proven and its effectiveness is demonstrated using numerical simulations and the CarSim© software.