Backward movement control of a trailer truck system using neuro-controllers evolved by genetic algorithm

Control of the backing movement of a trailer-truck system is very difficult because the dynamics are nonlinear. In this paper, a new control method using neuro- controllers (NCs) developed using a genetic algorithm (GA) is presented. We use a 3-5-1 neural network to control the steering angle. In the GA process, a simple evaluation function is used. We use only final configurations of the trailer-truck system after control trails in the evaluation function. We apply the control method not only to simulations but also to experiments. The results of both show that the control method is very effective. For verifying the effectiveness of this control method, we employ another control method, linear quadratic regulator (LQR). The results show that the control method using NCs evolved by GA exhibits better control performance than the LQR