Dynamic State Estimation and Control of a Heavy Tractor–Trailers Vehicle

Automated driving of a heavy tractor-trailers vehicle using only low-cost onboard sensors is challenging. Complex system dynamics and towing configuration changes degrade the performance of conventional model-based estimation and control methods. In this article, we propose an onboard-sensor-based automatic control system for a heavy tractor-trailers vehicle used in low-speed industrial applications. First, by introducing a new hitch force sensor, a tractor dynamic state estimator (TDSE) is proposed. It integrates the kinematic and dynamic information sources such that accurate and reactive dynamic states and model parameters of the lead tractor can be obtained simultaneously. Second, building on top of the TDSE, a highly practical integrated dynamic controller (IDC) is developed. It reliably enforces the heavy tractor-trailers vehicle to track the reference path and velocity under any towing situation. The performance of the proposed TDSE and IDC is proved theoretically. TDSE and IDC are also integrated into a full-size tractor-trailers vehicle, and their feasibility and superiority are validated through extensive experiments.