Backward motion control for articulated vehicles with double trailers considering driver's input

This paper describes the motion control for an articulated vehicle with double trailers. The backward motion of an articulated vehicle requires the experienced skill, because positions and angles of trailers must be controlled by only an input to a tractor. When a driver changes angles of trailers in backward driving, the steering angle of the tractor must be controlled skillfully. This operation is different in case of the backward motion of a single vehicle. If a driver's control skill is poor, maneuvering of an articulated vehicle is very dangerous. In this research, the control method for an articulated vehicle which has two trailers is proposed. By using this method, drivers are able to maneuver the articulated vehicle easily as like maneuvering a single vehicle. This method is based on Lyapunov function and backstepping. Several numerical results are shown to confirm the validity of the proposed method.