Event
Path Tracking Algorithm Proposed for Articulated Tractor-Trailer Forward and Reverse Motion
1 reports · 1 sources
Alexandre Lombard and co-authors propose a path tracking algorithm for single-trailer articulated vehicles: a lateral control law is applied on the trailer side, along with short-horizon predictive adjustments to the tractor's steering angle, so that both forward and reverse motion converge to the target path. The method is geometry-based and requires no per-vehicle calibration or training. The authors report that in high-fidelity physics simulation, the steady-state or final lateral error for straight-line, circular-arc and reverse docking trajectories was 0.02–0.05 meters; in physical tests on a small-scale tractor-trailer robot, with the controller running on a low-cost microcontroller, repeated reverse docking under approximately 200 milliseconds of pose-detection latency achieved lateral error below 13 millimeters. These results are as reported by the authors and await independent verification.
Report timeline
- A New Path-Tracking Algorithm for Forward and Reverse Maneuvers of Tractor-Trailers
The paper proposes a path-tracking algorithm for articulated vehicles with a single trailer. It applies a lateral control law at the trailer level and makes short-horizon predictive adjustments to the tractor steering angle, so that both forward and reverse motion converge stably to the target path. The method is geometry-based and requires no per-vehicle calibration or training. In a high-fidelity physics simulation, the steady-state or final lateral error on straight-line, circular-arc, and reverse docking trajectories was 0.02–0.05 m. The authors tested it on a small-scale tractor-trailer robot, with the controller running on a low-cost microcontroller; under about 200 ms of pose-detection latency, the lateral error in repeated reverse docking was below 13 mm.
arXiv cs.RO ·