A model-free predictor framework for tele-operated vehicles

One important challenge with vehicle teleoperation is that the communication delays can negatively affect the driving performance. To address this challenge, this paper adopts a model-free predictor based framework that, unlike previously reported efforts, does not require the predictor to know and model the system dynamics. This is achieved by communicating only the state variables and their derivatives that appear in the output equation for the calculation of the coupling variables. The difference between the predictor´s states and the system states results in an error system that is described by a delay differential equation and its stability is established for constant delays. First, this idea is adopted into a generic vehicle tele-operation framework. Then, it is applied to a simulated vehicle-driver system to evaluate the performance of the approach over various constant delays, stochastic delays, and a real network connection. The conclusion is that the approach holds a significant potential to alleviate the negative impact of delay and improve the performance of tele-operated vehicles.