Abstract
In recent years, control design for unmanned systems, especially a tractor–trailer system, has gained popularity among researchers. The emergence of such interest is caused by the potential reduction in cost and shortage of number of workers and labors. Two industries will benefit from the advancements of these types of systems: agriculture and cargo. By using the unmanned tractor–trailer system, harvesting and cultivating plants will become a safe and easy task. It will also cause a reduction in cost which in turn reduces the price on the end consumers. On the other hand, by using the unmanned tractor–trailer system in the cargo industry, shipping cost and time for the item delivery will be reduced. The work presented in this paper focuses on the development of a path tracking and a cascaded controller to control a tractor–trailer in reverse motion. The path tracking controller utilizes the Frenet–Serret frame to control the kinematics of the tractor–trailer system on a desired path, while the cascade controller’s main objective is to stabilize the system and to perform commands issued by the path tracker. The controlled parameters in this proposed design are the lateral distance to a path, trailer’s heading angel, articulated angel, and articulated angle’s rate. The main goal of such controller is to follow a path while the tractor–trailer system is moving in reverse and controlling the stability of the articulated vehicle to prevent the occurrence of a jackknife incident (uncontrolled state). The proposed controller has been tested in a different scenario where a successful implementation has been shown.
Highlights
Unmanned tractor–trailer systems are on the rise and current research focuses on increasing the safety of such systems
This paper focuses on developing a cascaded controller and a path tracking controller to control a tractor–trailer system moving in reverse for following a predefined path
The derivative of the curve angle is undefined at the help of the δThe (t)tractor–trailer as a smoothing function, to achieve a stable andtractor–trailer non-aggressive apthese locations
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Unmanned tractor–trailer systems are on the rise and current research focuses on increasing the safety of such systems. One of the main research problems in these systems is driving in a reverse direction. The main concern is to prevent the system from entering an uncontrollable mode known as jackknifing. Jackknifing is caused by exceeding the articulation angle i.e., the angle between the tractor and the trailer exceeds the derived limits in which it renders the system to be maneuverable. Other research interests are in improving the control system for the backward movement of the tractor–trailer and/or implementing safety features that aid in preventing the occurrence of a jackknifing
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