Design and Field Testing of a Lane Following Control System with a Camera Based on T&C Driver Model

This paper presents the design and implementation of a new steering control method for lane following control (LFC) using a camera. With the road information provided by the image sensor, the LFC system calculates the steering command based on the Target and Control (T&C) driver steering model. The T&C driver model employs a look-ahead control structure to capture the drivers’ core steering mechanism. Based on the models of the steering actuator and the vehicle dynamics, optimal control gains can be determined for any given look-ahead distance (normalized by the vehicle speed). With these simple gains, the vehicle can track very well along the center of the lane. This LFC system was first simulated under the Model-in-the-Loop (MiL) test using the CarSim simulation. The simulations show that the resultant lateral offsets are smaller than those from typical driver models. The experimental tests, conducted on proving ground as well as on the expressway in Taiwan using a LUXGEN S5 with existing OEM components, demonstrate the good performances of the designed LFC system up to 120kph.