{"id":7853,"date":"2022-05-23T08:48:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T12:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/student-lounge\/?p=7853"},"modified":"2026-03-09T08:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:16:11","slug":"simulating-trajectory-tracking-controllers-for-driverless-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/student-lounge\/2022\/05\/23\/simulating-trajectory-tracking-controllers-for-driverless-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"Simulating Trajectory Tracking Controllers for Driverless Cars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hi, everyone! In this blog, we will see how trajectory tracking controllers can be implemented in MATLAB and Simulink to make the vehicle follow a pre-defined path. Before we get started, a big thank you to my amazing colleagues, David Barnes<\/a>, Munish Raj<\/a>, and Roshan Hingnekar<\/a> for their efforts to build the content of this blog.<\/div>\n

Motivation<\/h2>\n
As a part of the Student Programs team at MathWorks, we regularly interact with students. During a few of these interactions, students suggested that similar to other Racing Lounge videos<\/a>, we should build some content on how to simulate bicycle models for path tracking applications. They also mentioned that it can be further utilized for lap time simulation models in Simulink. So inspired by the students and two of our powerful toolboxes, Vehicle dynamics blockset<\/a>, and Automated Driving Toolbox<\/a>, we decided to come up with a series of videos to demonstrate the workflow that can be easily implemented.<\/div>\n
That was the motivation that students gave us. Now, let’s check out the technical motivation!<\/div>\n
Trajectory tracking is one of the essential parts of autonomous driving where the goal of the vehicle is to control the lateral and longitudinal motion to follow a pre-defined path. For example, in the Formula Student Driverless competitions, the vehicle needs to simultaneously plan and track the path in the first lap. Further, in the subsequent laps, the vehicle tracks the optimized path at a much higher speed. Hence, the tracking accuracy of the controllers needs to be high to avoid major deviation from the path.<\/div>\n
Currently, there are multiple control strategies to address the trajectory tracking problem. However, in this blog, we will focus on the following three trajectory tracking controllers:<\/div>\n