Motion planning and posture control of the general 3 - trailer system

This paper presents a set of artificial potential field functions that improves upon, in general, the motion planning and posture control, with theoretically guaranteed point and posture stabilities, convergence and collision avoidance properties of the general3-trailer system in a priori known environment. We basically design and inject two new concepts; ghost walls and the distance optimization technique (DOT) to strengthen point and posture stabilities, in the sense of Lyapunov, of our dynamical model. This new combination of techniques emerges as a convenient mechanism for obtaining feasible orientations at the target positions with an overall reduction in the complexity of the navigation laws. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the controls laws

A path planning and path-following control framework for a general 2-trailer with a car-like tractor

Maneuvering a general 2-trailer with a car-like tractor in backward motion is a task that requires significant skill to master and is unarguably one of the most complicated tasks a truck driver has to perform. This paper presents a path planning and path-following control solution that can be used to automatically plan and execute difficult parking and obstacle avoidance maneuvers by combining backward and forward motion. A lattice-based path planning framework is developed in order to generate kinematically feasible and collision-free paths and a path-following controller is designed to stabilize the lateral and angular path-following error states during path execution. To estimate the vehicle state needed for control, a nonlinear observer is developed which only utilizes information from sensors that are mounted on the car-like tractor, making the system independent of additional trailer sensors. The proposed path planning and path-following control framework is implemented on a full-scale test vehicle and results from simulations and real-world experiments are presented.Comment: Preprin

SYNTHESIS OF THE LAWS GOVERNING THE NON-HOLONOMIC MODEL OF A TWO-LINK ROAD TRAIN WITH REVERSE MOTION (OFF-AXLE HITCHING MODEL)

The complexity of the control of the road train is due to the pronounced nonlinearities, as well as the instability of the control object during the movement in the backward motion (jackknifing). For the road trains, the location of the towing device behind the tractor's rear axle is quite typical. In this study, a synthesis of control laws for road trains with offset of coupling devices relative to the rear axle of the tractor (off-axle hitching) is proposed. The controllers have been implemented both to ensure a stable circular motion and for rectilinear motion with a given orientation angle, and the behavioral features of this model have been studied on the basis of them. Based on the analysis of the approaches to the synthesis of the laws governing the road train with the coupling out, it was decided to synthesize the required control laws using the Lyapunov function method. Synthesized controllers can be directly used to program the robotic systems of the respective models. It is also possible to use them for the development of the Dubins machine for the investigated model. They can be used to build automatic control systems that would help the driver to drive a car with a trailer while driving backward. In this research, a study was made of the state of the solution of the problem associated with the reverse movement of a road train consisting of a tractor and a semitrailer with a coupling, synthesized laws made it possible to study the features of such model, determined by its linear dimensions. For comparison of the synthesized laws, the analysis of phase portraits of trajectories, angles of folding and control, orientation angles was carried out, and also the analysis of the quality of transient processes with the change in the speed of the road train was performed

Slide-Down Prevention for Wheeled Mobile Robots on Slopes

Wheeled mobile robots on inclined terrain can slide down due to loss of traction and gravity. This type of instability, which is different from tip-over, can provoke uncontrolled motion or get the vehicle stuck. This paper proposes slide-down prevention by real-time computation of a straightforward stability margin for a given ground-wheel friction coefficient. This margin is applied to the case study of Lazaro, a hybrid skid-steer mobile robot with caster-leg mechanism that allows tests with four or five wheel contact points. Experimental results for both ADAMS simulations and the actual vehicle demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A global approach to kinematic path planning to robots with holonomic and nonholonomic constraints

Robots in applications may be subject to holonomic or nonholonomic constraints. Examples of holonomic constraints include a manipulator constrained through the contact with the environment, e.g., inserting a part, turning a crank, etc., and multiple manipulators constrained through a common payload. Examples of nonholonomic constraints include no-slip constraints on mobile robot wheels, local normal rotation constraints for soft finger and rolling contacts in grasping, and conservation of angular momentum of in-orbit space robots. The above examples all involve equality constraints; in applications, there are usually additional inequality constraints such as robot joint limits, self collision and environment collision avoidance constraints, steering angle constraints in mobile robots, etc. The problem of finding a kinematically feasible path that satisfies a given set of holonomic and nonholonomic constraints, of both equality and inequality types is addressed. The path planning problem is first posed as a finite time nonlinear control problem. This problem is subsequently transformed to a static root finding problem in an augmented space which can then be iteratively solved. The algorithm has shown promising results in planning feasible paths for redundant arms satisfying Cartesian path following and goal endpoint specifications, and mobile vehicles with multiple trailers. In contrast to local approaches, this algorithm is less prone to problems such as singularities and local minima