A VEHICLE CONTROL SYSTEM

A vehicle control system having a controller and a spatial database adapt ed to provide spatial data to the controller at control speed. The spatial d ata provided from the spatial database to the controller can be any kind of data or information that has some relationship or association with "real wor ld" geographical location, or if it is stored somehow with reference to geog raphical location. The spatial data received by the controller from the data base forms at least part of the control inputs that the controller operates on to control the vehicle. The fact that the controller operates directly on information that is inherently associated with "real world" geographic loca tion represents a change in thinking compared with existing vehicle control systems. In particular, it means that the control system of the present inve ntion "thinks" directly in terms of spatial location. A vehicle control syst em in accordance with one particular embodiment of the invention comprises a task path generator, a spatial database, at least one external spatial data receiver, a vehicle attitude compensation module, a position error generato r, a controller, and actuators to control the vehicle.