Computer-assisted Steering of Vehicles Using the Principle of "Tangential Approach" to the Correct Path

This paper introduces and describes a method of manoeuvring wheeled vehicles such as conventional tractors, tractors with four wheel steering and gantry tractors. The main advantage of this method is the minimization of vehicle´s path errors relative to the desired path. This achieved in the proposed technique by ensuring that rotation errors are eliminated simultaneously with translation errors. For conventional tractors and tractors with four wheel steering the driver can be aided by an on board system which indicates the deviation of the steering wheel (or joystick) from its optimum position. Alternatively all the vehicles referred to above can be manoeuvred automatically using the techniques described.