A novel adaptive control approach for path tracking control of autonomous vehicles subject to uncertain dynamics

Autonomous ground vehicles are constantly exposed to matched/mismatched uncertainties and disturbances and different operating conditions. Consequently, robustness to resist the undesirable effect of changes in the nominal parameters of the vehicle is a significant provision for satisfactory path-tracking control of these vehicles. The accomplishment of lateral path-tracking control is an essential task expectable from autonomous ground vehicles, particularly during critical maneuvers, abrupt cornering, and lane changes at high speeds. This paper presents a new control approach based on immersion and invariance control theorem. The asymptotic stability of the proposed method is ensured and the adaptation laws for the parameters are derived based on the I&I stability theorem. The effectiveness of the proposed control method is confirmed for autonomous ground vehicles systems while making a double-lane-change at various forward speeds. The robustness of the proposed control method is evaluated under parametric uncertainties related to the autonomous ground vehicle and different road conditions. The obtained results suggest that the proposed control method holds the capacity to be applied effectively to the path-tracking task of autonomous ground vehicles under a broad range of operating conditions, parametric uncertainness, and external disturbances.