Intermittent Control in Autonomous Vehicle Steering Control and Lane Keeping

Intermittent control is a control approach in which a continuous control law is applied, but is switched on and off based on a threshold criteria in the controlled variable. Evidence of intermittency in control strategies employed by humans in various tasks have been reported widely, however, an analysis of why an intermittent controls strategy might be advantageous even when an continuous control strategy is feasible, is not widely available. In vehicle steering control, empirical data suggests that humans indeed use an intermittent strategy. In this paper, we examine this question of advantages of an intermittent control strategy with the help of typical vehicle steering control and lane keeping problems. Using simulation results, we generate insights related to stability, robustness and energy efficiency of intermittent control over continuous control. These insights may have immediate applications to autonomous driverless cars and other wider range of applications. � 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.