Dynamic Model and Predictive Control of Electric Driven Eight-wheeled Differential Steering Autonomous Vehicle

This paper presents the dynamic modeling and predictive control method and the controller design of an electric driven eight-wheeled differential steering autonomous vehicle. First, the dynamic model of autonomous vehicle is built. Then, the model predictive control method is introduced. Consequently, the path tracking controller of autonomous vehicle is designed on the basis of dynamic model and predictive control method. Finally, the real vehicle experiment is performed at a middle speed up to 60km/h on a two kilometers long highway. The experimental results show a mean lateral error less than 0.3m and heading error less than 2 deg when follow the given refer path. The experiment also proofs the controller has certain anti-interference ability, which demonstrates the effectiveness of proposed control method and autonomous vehicle path tracking controller.