Evaluation of model predictive control method for collision avoidance of automated vehicles

Abstract

Collision avoidance design plays an essential role in autonomous vehicle technology. It's an attractive research area that will need much experimentation in the future. This research area is very important for providing the maximum safety to automated vehicles, which have to be tested several times under diFFerent circumstances for safety before use in real life. This thesis proposes a method for designing and presenting a collision avoidance maneuver by using a model predictive controller with a moving obstacle for automated vehicles. It consists of a plant model, an adaptive MPC controller, and a reference trajectory. The proposed strategy applies a dynamic bicycle model as the plant model, adaptive model predictive controller for the lateral control, and a custom reference trajectory for the scenario design. The model was developed using the Model Predictive Control Toolbox and Automated Driving Toolbox in Matlab. Builtin tools available in Matlab/Simulink were used to verify the modeling approach and analyze the performance of the system. The major contribution of this thesis work was implementing a novel dynamic obstacle avoidance control method for automated vehicles. The study used validated parameters obtained from previous research. The novelty of this research was performing the studies using a MPC based controller instead of a sliding mode controller, that was primarily used in other studies. The results obtained from the study are compared with the validated models. The comparisons consisted of the lateral overlap, lateral error, and steering angle simulation results between the models. Additionally, this study also included outcomes for the yaw angle. The comparisons and other outcomes obtained in this study indicated that the developed control model produced reasonably acceptable results and recommendations for future studies.