Decentralized Controllers for the Steering and Velocity in Vehicles

Vehicle Control Systems (VCS) for the lateral (steering) and longitudinal (velocity) dynamics are normally used to improve the handling properties of a vehicle. However, when different VCS operate simultaneously in the vehicle, the global performance could be degraded because of the cross-coupling dynamics. In this article the design of decentralized controllers for the steering and velocity subsystems is presented. The resulting control scheme reduces the cross/coupling among the steering and longitudinal dynamics. These results were achieved by proposing a more complete vehicle model and analyzing the cross-coupling using a multivariable analysis and design framework known as Individual Channel Analysis and Design (IChAD). These results can be extended for other coupled subsystems.