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This paper presents a tire slip-angle based speed control race driver model. In developing a chassis control system for enhancement of high-speed driving performance, analysis of the vehicle-driver interaction at limit handling is one of the main research issues. Thus, a driver model which represents driving characteristics in a racing situation is required to develop a chassis control system. Since a race driver drives a vehicle as fast as possible on a given racing line without losing control, the proposed driver model is developed to ensure a lateral stability. In racing situation, one of the reasons which cause the lateral instabilities is an excessive corner-entry speed. The lateral instability in that moment is hard to handle with only a steering control. To guarantee the lateral stability of the vehicle while maximizing a cornering speed, a desired speed is determined to retain a tire slip-angle that maximizes lateral tire forces without front tire saturation.

This paper describes a hierarchical motion planning and control framework for overtaking maneuvers under racing circumstances. Unlike urban or highway autonomous driving conditions, race track driving requires longer prediction and planning horizons in order to respond to upcoming corners at high speed. In addition, the subject vehicle should determine the optimal action among possible driving modes when opponent vehicles are present. In order to meet these requirements and secure real time performance, a hierarchical architecture for decision making, motion planning, and control for an autonomous racing vehicle is proposed. The supervisor determines whether the subject vehicle should stay behind the preceding vehicle or overtake, and its direction when overtaking. Next, a high level trajectory planner generates the desired path and velocity profile in a receding horizon fashion.