A Remote Control Strategy for an Autonomous Vehicle with Slow Sensor Using Kalman Filtering and Dual-Rate Control

Abstract

This work presents a novel remote control solution for an Autonomous Vehicle (AV), where the system structure is split into two sides. Both sides are assumed to be synchronized and linked through a communication network, which introduces time-varying delays and packet disorder. An Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is used to cope with the non-linearities that appear in the global model of the AV. The EKF fuses the data provided by the sensing devices of the AV in order to estimate the AV state, reducing the noise effect. Additionally, the EKF includes an h-step-ahead state prediction stage, which, together with the consideration of a packet-based control strategy, enables facing the network-induced delays. Since the AV position is provided by a camera, which is a slow sensing device, a dual-rate controller is required to achieve certain desired (nominal) dynamic control performance. The use of a dual-rate control framework additionally enables saving network bandwidth and deals with packet disorder. As the path-tracking control algorithm, pure pursuit is used. Application results show that, despite existing communication problems and slow-rate measurements, the AV is able to track the desired path, keeping the nominal control performance.