Lateral Control Calibration and Testing in a Co-Simulation Framework for Automated Vehicles

Lateral vehicle control is of high importance in automated vehicles as it directly influences the vehicle’s performance and safety during operation. The linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controller stands out due to its high-performance characteristics and is used in the open source for self-driving functions. However, a notable limitation of the current approach is the manual calibration of LQR controllers based on the experience and intuition of the designers, leading to empirical uncertainties. To address this issue and enhance the lateral control performance, this paper concentrates on refining the LQR by employing three optimization algorithms: artificial bee colony optimization (ABC), genetic algorithm (GA), and particle swarm optimization (PSO). These algorithms aim to overcome the reliance on empirical methods and enable a data-driven approach to LQR calibration. By comparing the outcomes of these optimization algorithms to the manual LQR controller within an offline multibody simulation as a testing platform, this study highlights the superiority of the best-performing optimization approach. Following this, the optimal algorithm is implemented on a real-time system for the full vehicle level, revealing the model-in-the-loop and the hardware-in-the-loop gap up to 78.89% with lateral velocity when we use the relative error criterion (REC) method to validate and 2.35 m with lateral displacement when considering the maximum absolute value method.