Path Following Control for Tractor-Trailer Mobile Robots with Two Kinds of Connection Structures

This paper addresses the problems of the forward and backward path following control for tractor-trailer mobile robots (TTMR) with connection structures of on-axle hitching and off-axle hitching. First, the kinematics is described and the motion characteristics are analyzed. Then, by Lyapunov method we design a global path following controller for single-body mobile robot and extend it to the forward path following control of the TTMR. Furthermore, by the kinematics transformation and the backstepping technique respectively, we propose approaches to the backward path following control for TTMR with two kinds of connection structures based on the above controller. Finally, a set of simulations is presented to show the validity of our approach