On the Design of Control Invariant Regions for Feedback Linearized Car-Like Vehicles

This letter proposes a novel procedure to design a control invariant region for feedback-linearized car-like vehicles subject to linear and steering velocity constraints. To this end, first, it is formally proved that the state-dependent input constraints acting on the feedback-linearized car model admit a worst-case circular inner approximation. Then, it is shown that such a characterization can be used to analytically design a tracking controller with an associated invariant region capable of ensuring constraints fulfillment. Finally, simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed solution and its potential to enable the design, via control invariance, of a new class of constrained and model predictive solutions for input-constrained feedback-linearized car-like vehicles.