Research on trajectory tracking and body attitude control of autonomous ground vehicle based on differential steering

The differential steering can be used not only as the backup system of steer-by-wire, but also as the only steering system. Because the differential steering is realized through the differential moment between the coaxial left and right driving wheels, the sharp reduction of the load on the inner driving wheel will directly lead to the failure of the differential steering when the four-wheel independent drive electric vehicle approaches the rollover. Therefore, this paper not only realizes the trajectory tracking of autonomous ground vehicle through the differential steering, but also puts forward the body attitude control to improve the handling stability. Firstly, the dynamic and kinematic models of differential steering autonomous ground vehicle (DSAGV) and its roll model are established, and the linear three-degree of freedom vehicle model is selected as the reference model to generate the ideal body roll angle. Secondly, a model predictive controller (MPC) is designed to control the DSAGV to track the given reference trajectory, and obtain the required differential moment and the resulting front-wheel steering angle. Then, a sliding mode controller (SMC) is adopted to control the DSAGV to track the ideal body roll angle, and obtain the required roll moment. The simulation results show that the proposed MPC and SMC can not only make the DSAGV realize the trajectory tracking, but also achieve the body attitude control.