Robust Fault-Tolerant Path Following Control for Autonomous Ground Vehicles With Network Delay and Actuator Failures

This work proposes a robust fault-tolerant path following control strategy for Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGVs) subjected to network delays and actuator failures. Firstly, a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model is developed to characterize the nonlinear vehicle dynamics, accounting for uncertainties in vehicle speed and tire cornering stiffness. Secondly, a stability condition is derived using linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) with expanded matrices to handle network-induced delays and data loss. Thirdly, a fault-tolerant control method integrating robust H-infinity performance is proposed to ensure path following accuracy and stability. Experimental results via hardware-in-the-loop tests demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller in improving tracking performance and handling actuator failures under varying conditions.