Vehicle following algorithm realization based on flexible curved bar

To solve the tracking accuracy problem of vehicle following system, when the leader vehicle was accelerating or turning, a novel algorithm based on a virtual flexible curved bar was proposed to apply for vehicle following. A virtual flexible curved bar was supposed to connect the leader and the follower. The curved bar was as long as the distance between the leader and the follower, while the bar arc fitted the leader's curved path. The radiuses of the short arcs were recorded sequentially as the radiuses of leader trajectory to make the trajectory smooth and continuous. An acceleration fuzzy set was designed according to the bar length and the safe distance to update the follower's velocity, in order to avoid the kowtow phenomenon during the following motion. Finally, some simulations were implemented in the three-dimensional robot simulation software. The results show that the method can be used in reality and the trajectory tracking accuracy can reach below 1 cm.