Speed Tracking Control of a Vehicle Robot Driver System Using Multiple Sliding Surface Control Schemes

To overcome the drawbacks of using a traditional proportional‐integral‐derivative (PID) control method for a robot driver system, such as requiring preliminary offline learning, big overshoot and large speed fluctuation, a new method for speed tracking of a robot driver system based on sliding mode control is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the coordinated control model of multiple manipulators for the robot driver is built, which achieved coordinated control of the throttle mechanical leg, clutch mechanical leg, brake mechanical leg and shift mechanical arm for the robot driver. On the basis of this, a speed tracking sliding mode controller for a vehicle robot driver is designed using the method of multiple sliding surfaces design, and the variable structure control laws of throttle and brake are designed respectively, which realize the speed tracking of the given driving test cycle. Experimental results demonstrate that compared with the PID control method, the proposed method can obviously reduce the overshoot of vehicle speed tracking control and greatly improve the accuracy of vehicle speed tracking. The vehicle speed tracking accuracy stays within a tolerance band of ±2 km/h, which meets the requirements of national vehicle test standards. Furthermore, the action of the speed tracking control in the same driving test cycle using the proposed method is consistent, so that the robot driver has good repeatability. Therefore, it can ensure the effectiveness of the vehicle emission test.