Learning control in spatial coordinates for the path-following of autonomous vehicles

On the basis of a kinematic third order nonlinear model of an autonomous vehicle, a space-learning control is designed for the tracking of planar curves whose uncertain curvature is L-periodic in the curvilinear abscissa. The behaviour of a human driver, who repetitively learns the correct action from the past experience, is mathematically reproduced. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented approach.