# A Tricycle Model to Accurately Control an Autonomous Racecar with Locked Differential

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.14808 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14808/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 6 of its 19 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Dec 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [A Survey of Motion Planning and Control Techniques for Self-driving Urban Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.07446/) (2016)
- [Autonomous Vehicles on the Edge: A Survey on Autonomous Vehicle Racing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.07008/) (2022)
- [AMZ Driverless: The Full Autonomous Racing System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05150/) (2019)
- [Motion Planning and Control for Multi Vehicle Autonomous Racing at High Speeds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.11136/) (2022)
- [A hierarchical adaptive nonlinear model predictive control approach for maximizing tire force usage in autonomous vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.12263/) (2023)
- [er.autopilot 1.0: The Full Autonomous Stack for Oval Racing at High Speeds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.18112/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [A Simulation Benchmark for Autonomous Racing with Large-Scale Human Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.16680/) (2024)
- [Analyzing the Impact of Simulation Fidelity on the Evaluation of Autonomous Driving Motion Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.07984/) (2026)
- [A Modular Architecture Design for Autonomous Driving Racing in Controlled Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.03886/) (2025)
- [Adapting Generalist Vehicle Models for High-Speed MPC Across Terrains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.13319/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this paper, we present a novel formulation to model the effects of a locked differential on the lateral dynamics of an autonomous open-wheel racecar. The model is used in a Model Predictive Controller in which we included a micro-steps discretization approach to accurately linearize the dynamics and produce a prediction suitable for real-time implementation. The stability analysis of the model is presented, as well as a brief description of the overall planning and control scheme which includes an offline trajectory generation pipeline, an online local speed profile planner, and a low-level longitudinal controller. An improvement of the lateral path tracking is demonstrated in preliminary experimental results that have been produced on a Dallara AV-21 during the first Indy Autonomous Challenge event on the Monza F1 racetrack. Final adjustments and tuning have been performed in a high-fidelity simulator demonstrating the effectiveness of the solution when performing close to the tire limits.