• autonomous
• control
• driverless
• lap-time simulation
• map of achievable performance
• minimum-time manoeuvring
• optimization
• planning
• trajectory
• vehicle

In this thesis some clues for trajectory planning and control of cars are presented, which take advantage of the Maps of Achievable Performance (MAPs) for a concise description of the steady state behavior of the vehicle. In the first part, a double track model with seven degrees of freedom and full Pacejka's formulation for the tires’ characteristics, is used to obtain the MAPs. Relying on MAPs, in the second part of the thesis, two methods for planning a full-lap racing path - in a first stage - and the associated speed profile - in a subsequent stage - are presented. Then, a strategy for dynamically updating the trajectory is proposed. Lastly, a feedback-feedforward controller is designed for trajectory tracking, showing excellent performances.