Modelling and control of an autonomous vehicle

• Main Author: Sabatta, Deon George
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Mobile robots
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/5674

M.Ing. === This thesis deals with the modelling and control of an autonomous four-wheeled car-like vehicle. The autonomous vehicle is built on the chassis of a Tamiya TXT-1, one-tenth scale, off-road remote control truck. The simplified kinematic and dynamic models of this vehicle are derived for the purposes of control. These models are converted to a suitable form and control laws are then developed to perform set-point control as well as path following. A sonar array is constructed to permit the vehicle to sense its surroundings and construct a map of an unknown environment as it navigates through it. Lastly the Vector Field Histogram (VFH) obstacle avoidance algorithm is implemented and used to guide the vehicle through a sparsely populated environment without colliding with the obstacles.