Implementation:CARLA simulator Carla VehicleAckermannControl

Knowledge Sources	CARLA
Domains	Vehicle Control, RPC Serialization
Last Updated	2026-02-15 05:00 GMT

Overview

VehicleAckermannControl is an RPC-serializable class that holds the Ackermann steering control inputs for a vehicle, including steer angle, steer speed, target speed, acceleration, and jerk.

Description

Defined in the carla::rpc namespace (~84 lines), this class represents the control commands for Ackermann steering, which is a kinematically accurate steering model. The five control parameters are:

• steer (float, default 0.0f): desired steering angle
• steer_speed (float, default 0.0f): rate of steering change
• speed (float, default 0.0f): target vehicle speed
• acceleration (float, default 0.0f): target acceleration
• jerk (float, default 0.0f): rate of acceleration change

The class supports MsgPack serialization, equality operators, and UE4 conversion to/from FVehicleAckermannControl when compiled within Unreal Engine.

Usage

Use this type to apply Ackermann steering control commands to vehicles via the CARLA client API, as an alternative to the standard throttle/brake/steer model.

Code Reference

Source Location

• Repository: CARLA
• File: LibCarla/source/carla/rpc/VehicleAckermannControl.h

Signature

namespace carla {
namespace rpc {

  class VehicleAckermannControl {
  public:
    VehicleAckermannControl() = default;
    VehicleAckermannControl(float steer, float steer_speed,
        float speed, float acceleration, float jerk);

    float steer = 0.0f;
    float steer_speed = 0.0f;
    float speed = 0.0f;
    float acceleration = 0.0f;
    float jerk = 0.0f;

    bool operator!=(const VehicleAckermannControl &rhs) const;
    bool operator==(const VehicleAckermannControl &rhs) const;

    MSGPACK_DEFINE_ARRAY(steer, steer_speed, speed, acceleration, jerk);
  };

} // namespace rpc
} // namespace carla

Import

#include "carla/rpc/VehicleAckermannControl.h"

I/O Contract

Field	Type	Default	Description
steer	float	0.0f	Desired steering angle
steer_speed	float	0.0f	Rate of steering change
speed	float	0.0f	Target vehicle speed
acceleration	float	0.0f	Target acceleration
jerk	float	0.0f	Rate of acceleration change

Usage Examples

#include "carla/rpc/VehicleAckermannControl.h"

carla::rpc::VehicleAckermannControl control;
control.steer = 0.1f;          // slight right turn
control.speed = 10.0f;         // 10 m/s target speed
control.acceleration = 2.0f;   // 2 m/s^2

// Apply Ackermann control to vehicle
vehicle->ApplyAckermannControl(control);

Related Pages

• CARLA_simulator_Carla_AckermannControllerSettings
• CARLA_simulator_Carla_VehicleControl
• Environment:CARLA_simulator_Carla_Simulation_Runtime