Host vehicle with decoupled blend path and curvature tracking control

An electronic control unit (ECU) for a host vehicle, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transient, computer-readable storage medium (“memory”) storing instructions, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to cause the processor to:
• sense lane curvature information of a lane at a calibrated speed-based look ahead interval;
• determine a target path on the lane using the lane curvature information;
• compute a first feedforward angle command of the host vehicle to follow the lane curvature;
• compute a second feedforward angle command of the host vehicle to merge with the target path at a blending point along a blend path;
• determine a final feedforward angle command as a sum of the first feedforward angle command and the second feedforward angle command;
• calculate, using the final feedforward angle command, a steering command necessary to correct offset of the host vehicle from the target path, the steering command representing error between curvature of the blend path and curvature of the target path;
• and
• control a steering operation of the host vehicle via the ECU using the steering command.

A host vehicle comprising:

• a vehicle body;
• a set of road wheels connected to the vehicle body;
• a sensor suite mounted to the vehicle body;
• an electronic power steering (EPS) system connected to at least some of the road wheels, and configured to steer the host vehicle in a lane;
• and
• an electronic control unit (ECU) configured to:
• sense lane curvature information of the lane at a calibrated speed-based look ahead interval by receiving real-time image data from one or more sensors of the sensor suite, detect lane boundaries of the lane using the real-time image data, and locate a target path on the lane between the lane boundaries using the lane curvature information;
• compute a first feedforward angle command of the host vehicle to follow the lane curvature;
• compute a second feedforward angle command of the host vehicle to merge with the target path at a blending point along a blend path;
• determine a final feedforward angle command as a sum of the first feedforward angle command and the second feedforward angle command;
• calculate, using the final feedforward angle command, a steering command necessary to correct offset of the host vehicle from the target path, the steering command representing error between curvature of the blend path and curvature of the target path;
• and
• control a steering operation of the host vehicle via the EPS system using the steering command.