Directional Control of Articulated Heavy Vehicles

In this paper, a method for directional control of articulated heavy vehicles is proposed. The tractor yaw rate, the tractor lateral velocity and the articulation angle are selected as the control variables. The desired values of these states are defined in such way to improve the maneuverability and the stability of the articulated vehicle. A linear quadratic regulator controller is designed based on the linear model of the articulated vehicle to make the control variables follow the desired responses. Furthermore, a nonlinear 14 Degrees of freedom (DoF) model is developed to evaluate the proposed control method. The significant effect of the proposed method on improving the directional behavior of the articulated vehicle is proved through the simulations of the high speed lane change maneuver on a slippery road.