Development of vehicle maneuvering system for autonomous driving

Recently, autonomous driving technology has received significant interest, and consequently, various autonomous driving algorithms have been developed by researchers. An experimental (conventional) vehicle verifies the strategy for autonomous driving by testing the performance and feasibility of the corresponding algorithms. Implementation of the autonomous driving strategy in the conventional vehicle system requires modification of the electronic control unit (ECU); however, this is limited by security issues and the high cost of development.In this paper, a maneuvering system that can control the steering angle, braking force, and accelerating signal so that autonomous driving does not operate via the ECU is proposed. Because the steering angle is an important factor in terms of the vehicle motion behavior, a robust angle controller based on the disturbance observer is adopted. Moreover, to ensure safety and user convenience, a user intention recognition algorithm is proposed. Based on this algorithm, the maneuvering system can be disabled during control without using any perception sensor. Finally, several experiments are conducted to evaluate the functions of the maneuvering system. A scenario-based driving test is also performed to verify the feasibility of the maneuvering system.