Autonomous Driving of Truck-Trailer Mobile Robots with Linear-Fuzzy Control for Trajectory Following

Abstract

The modeling and autonomous control of truck-trailer mobile robots for trajectory following are addressed. The robot kinematical model is analyzed and used for designing a positioning control system based on linear controllers integrated in a fuzzy-logic approach. The design takes into account both positioning performance and jack-knife avoidance. The results of robot positioning control are extended to trajectory following for which a novel strategy is proposed applicable to general shape desired trajectories. The effectiveness of the proposed methods are verified for linear, circular and sinusoidal trajectories where the mobile robot converges to the desired trajectories, avoiding jack-knife positions and with bounded values of input steering angle.