A path-following driver/vehicle model with optimized lateral dynamic controller

Reduction in traffic congestion and overall number of accidents, especially within the last decade, can be attributed to the enormous progress in active safety. Vehicle path following control with the presence of driver commands can be regarded as one of the important issues in vehicle active safety systems development and more realistic explanation of vehicle path tracking problem. In this paper, an integrated driver/DYC control system is presented that regulates the steering angle and yaw moment, considering driver previewed path. Thus, the driver previewed distance, the heading error and the lateral deviation between the vehicle and desired path are used as inputs. Then, the controller determines and applies a corrective steering angle and a direct yaw moment to make the vehicle follow the desired path. A PID controller with optimized gains is used for the control of integrated driver/DYC system. Genetic Algorithm as an intelligent optimization method is utilized to adapt PID controller gains for various working situations. Proposed integrated driver/DYC controller is examined on lane change manuvers and the sensitivity of the control system is investigated through the changes in the driver model and vehicle parameters. Simulation results show the pronounced effectiveness of the controller in vehicle path following and stability.