Intersection Assist For Vehicle With Dual-Trailers Using Nonlinear Model Predictive Control And Unscented Kalman Filter

This paper presents a novel approach utilizing Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) and Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) to predict system state and control the trajectory of the vehicle with double trailers in an intersection turn scenario. The UKF estimates vehicle and trailers’ lateral traversal velocity states and the NMPC controls the vehicle acceleration and steering to maintain the vehicle’s desired heading through the turn. The vehicle’s lateral traversal velocity function is formulated using Lyapunov based method which is used as a propagation function in the UKF to improve the estimation accuracy. The lateral traversal velocity is then used as one of the constraints in the NMPC problem. The overall estimation and the control scheme are formulated and assessed in the simulation environment. The simulation results show good tracking and curb avoidance performance.