Experimental Verification of the Power Slide Driving Technique for Control Strategy of Autonomous Race Cars

In this study, an experimental 1:43-scale car was developed to verify a vehicle control strategy for autonomous race cars. The power slide driving technique was employed as a maneuver to overcome sharp corners at high speed. To develop a proper control strategy for autonomous race cars, the experimental scale car trajectories when driven by a human driver were analyzed. The side slip angle and the turn rate during sharp cornering were used as reference values for the developed autonomous control method that has a hierarchical architecture. The slip-based control method was employed as a high-level controller to stabilize the vehicle state when turning sharp corners. The performance of the developed control strategy was experimentally verified using a real-time environmental 1:43-scale car.