Trajectory tracking for autonomous vehicles: An integrated approach to guidance and control

A new methodology is introduced for integrated design of guidance and control systems for autonomous vehicles (AVs). The methodology proposed borrows from the theory of gain-scheduled control and leads to an efficient procedure for the design of controllers for AVs to accurately track reference trajectories defined in an inertial reference frame. The paper illustrates the application of this procedure to the design of a tracking controller for the unmanned air vehicle Bluebird. The design phase is summarized, and the performance of the resulting controller is assessed in simulation using dynamic models of the vehicle and its sensor suite.