Control of a unicycle-like robot with three on-axle trailers using transverse function approach

The paper considers application of a controller using transverse functions to solving the regulation and trajectory tracking problem for a multi-body vehicle which consists of a unicycle-like tractor with three trailers. In order to facilitate the controller design, the kinematics of the system is partially defined on the Lie group. The control solution is based on configuration and input transformation of an open-loop error dynamics to the invariant system with a drift. The properties of the closed-loop control system are examined based on the results of numerical simulations considering the selected motion tasks.