Dynamics of car-like robots with trailers, application to skid and jack-knife

In this paper, we present a dynamic model for simulating a car-like robot with trailer taking into account suspension system and tires deformations. The model describing the wheel/ground contact is a linear model and the joint tractor/trailer is modeled as a spherical-joint. The obtained results are compared with those given by the Pc-Crash software. We noted a good correlation for various scenarios. Furthermore, the proposed model has been successfully applied to study the unbalanced braking in a straight line and the jack-knife problem.