Lane tracking and obstacle avoidance for Autonomous Ground Vehicles

This paper presents a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of a proposed mechatronics system for an Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV). This vehicle has the capability of: lane detection, tracking and obstacle avoidance. The system considered employs a computer vision technique in which real time data are collected by a single calibrated camera. Further processing and analysis to the images captured by the camera are carried out to recognize the lane lines and the obstacle dimensions. A PID controller is implemented to predict and control the vehicle heading angle in order to properly follow the lane and/or avoid obstacles. The numerical simulation is implemented in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. This choice has added the possibilities of the inclusion of advanced control strategies and the use of the real-time and image processing toolboxes. For the purpose of analysis and examination, a realization model car has been equipped with the proposed mechatronics system and used to carry out several field tests. The outcomes from both the field experiments and the computer simulation show a good agreement with each other which reveals the applicability of the proposed system.