Steering Control and Path Planning of Two-Wheel Vehicle with Hazard Avoidance

This paper presents a shortest-path-to-target control method via differential speed control of a two-wheeled vehicle. The motion of the vehicle is guided by a path planning algorithm. The overall path length is reduced in real time by tuning the desired turning radius. The desired turning radius uses a fastest descending gradient of the path length to obtain a local optimum. Using the current turning radius as a feedback, a controller is designed to adjust the left and right wheel speeds to accurately track the desired turning radius. Eventually, the two-wheeled vehicle is driven to the target with a shortest path. Simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.