Coordination of actuators for an A-double heavy vehicle combination using control allocation

This paper shows how actuator coordination, based on control allocation, can be used in the motion control system for long articulated heavy vehicles. Usage of a control allocation structure is one way to handle an over-actuated system, which is a system where there are more motion actuators than controlled motions. The A-double combination is in focus for the control allocation design, which is based on vehicle modelling using the Lagrange formulation. The control structure is tested in a simulation environment and evaluated by two test scenarios. For the selected configuration with 31 actuators, the control allocation method coordinates the desired motion for both large and small steer and articulation angles. The proposed control structure is shown to be convenient when the vehicle configuration, for example the number of actuators in the combination, is changed.