Dual-Region-Based Variable-Structure Avoidance Control Strategy for Multiple Car-Like Vehicles

This article presents a closed-form variable-structure control strategy with dual avoidance regions design for collision-free waypoint navigation and trajectory tracking of car-like vehicles. New Bézier curve-based collision risk assessment functions are introduced to improve curvature adjustment for both cooperative and noncooperative avoidance pairs of vehicles. The variable-structure control guides the vehicle’s state toward a switching surface, stabilizing the risk function’s rate of change and reducing conservative avoidance behavior. Safety-corrected tracking control enhances performance in dense obstacle environments. Based on the Lyapunov approach, technical guarantees are formulated and proved for the system’s convergence and collision-free maneuvering. Two simulations illustrate the approach: one for point-to-point tracking compared with other approaches, and the other for cooperative vehicles navigating a dense obstacle field. Finally, an experiment validates the control law’s applicability and effectiveness.