Investigation into Turning Behavior of Semi - trailer with Additional Trailer - wheel Steering - - A Control Method for Trailer - wheel Steering to Minimize Trailer Rear - overhang Swing in Short Turns

To improve the low-speed followability of semi-trailers, a control method has been developed for trailer-wheel steering. The basic concept of the control method is to steer the wheels so that the trailer rear end follows the tractor front end. Computational simulation results show that the control method minimizes the swept path of the tractor and trailer combination without causing any rear end overhang swing problems. To evaluate the effectiveness of the control method, the approximately one twelfth scale model vehicles of the tractor and semitrailer were produced. Tests on the articulated model vehicles show that better low speed follwabilty improvement is expected with path-following control compared with other trailer wheel steering control methods.