Path Following Control of Tractor-trailers with Off-axle Hitching

Abstract

This paper investigates the geometric path following problem of mobile robot towing an off-axle trailers. First, the time-state linearization model of the tractor-trailer system is derived, then a dynamic feedback tracking control law is proposed based on internal model principle, guaranteeing all the states uniformly bounded and ultimately uniform bounded (BUUB) with the norm of final tracking error of the given trailer proportional to the squared norm of the desired external output signals. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.