Speed Tracking Control of Tracked Vehicle using PID Controller Optimized by Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents a development of speed tracking control of a tracked vehicle system. The system is developed based on a three degree-of-freedoms (3-DOF) model of tracked vehicle that can be used to control the vehicle speed. Here, Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is used to control the vehicle speed and next the controller is optimized using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. To evaluate the performance of the developed control structure with optimized PID, desired speed and response of non-optimized PID are used as the benchmarks. Here, the vehicle is set to travel in various speeds which are 5 km/h, 10 km/h and 15 km/h. From the simulation results, it can be observed that the performance of optimized PID is better compared with non-optimized PID. The optimized PID is then tested experimentally via Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation (HiLS) to evaluate the actuator efficiency using in-wheel motor in achieving the desired vehicle speed. From the experimental results, it can be observed that the experimental responses are able to track the desired speeds as set in the Target-PC with acceptable of error. It also indicates a good agreement of actual in-wheel motor in maintaining the desired speed.