Abstract: Through analysis of the effect of road adhesion conditions and curvatures to the vehicle steering characteristics and stabilility, an equivalent dynamic model for high-speed unmanned vehicles is established. A model discretization method with variable steps is proposed to ensure a long enough prediction time domain while maintaining model prediction accuracy and computational feasibility. By analyzing the steady running state of high-speed vehicles, the envelope-based sideslip constraints are concluded and the trajectory tracking controller of high-speed unmanned vehicles based on model predictive control is designed. Simulation results validates that the proposed strategy can effectively ensure the vehicle handling stability under different road adhesion conditions and road curvatures.

Key words: high-speed unmanned vehicles, vehicle dynamics, handling stability, model predictive control