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Virginia Tech

Autonomous Vehicle Waypoint Navigation Using Hyper-Clothoids

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This research study presents two control solutions, PID and the novel hyper-clothoid control strategy, to autonomously navigate a car. These waypoint navigation solutions smoothly connect the given waypoints with C1 continuity using Hermite cubic splines which is used as a reference path for the controller to track. The PID controller uses lateral and heading error to generate a steering profile for the vehicle to track the constructed reference path. A novel real time solution is presented as the second control strategy which involves constructing clothoids to generate a steering profile. The resultant car trajectory preserves curvature and curvature rate continuity. A simulation test bench was developed in MATLAB and Simulink. Six benchmark waypoint datasets have been used for regression testing and validating the algorithms. Both the proposed control strategies have been implemented on a 2017 GM Chevy Bolt EV. A real time operating system (QNX) has been used and was time-synced with the localization suite in the test vehicle. Closed loop results with accuracies up to 50 cm of lateral error have been achieved using the test vehicle.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mechanical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Mechanical Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2022

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Kotha, Bhavi Bharat
Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Southward, Steve C.
  • Wicks, Alfred L.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Abbott, A. Lynn
  • Leonessa, Alexander

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:33321
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/107832

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Kotha, Bhavi Bharat. Autonomous Vehicle Waypoint Navigation Using Hyper-Clothoids. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/107832