The motion of a multi-articulated either robotic or transportation vehicle is characterized by the deviation of the path of each intermediate vehicle from that of the leading one (off-tracking phenomenon). Off-tracking is one of the most significant problems with potentially dangerous consequences occurring in multi-articulated vehicles. This problem creates difficulties or even renders prohibitive the wide application of multi-articulated vehicles in both robotic and transportation domains. The sliding kingpin mechanism is a mechanism whose principle of operation allows correcting such deviations. The off-tracking can be eliminated by sliding each trailer with respect to the previous one. According to this technique the kingpin hitch in each semi-trailer slides in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axle (i.e. along the rear axle) of the trailer by a certain distance. The kinematic behavior of a trailer system without and with sliding, respectively, is described. The visualization of motion of multi-articulated vehicles is presented using the complete kinematic equations for multi-articulated vehicle equipped with a novel movable junction technique the so called 'sliding kingpin mechanism'. The three and five semi-trailer cases are considered. Based on the analysis, a nonlinear controller for regulating the sliding distance in the trailers is derived for adjusting the sliding distance of the sliding kingpin mechanism based on the theoretical steady-state off-tracking when the leading vehicle moves along a circular trajectory. The analytically derived nonlinear controller performed exceptionally eliminating off-tracking in all phases of the vehicle motion.
Visualized simulation of off-tracking elimination in the n-trailer problem
Simulation und Visualisierung der Spurhaltungsregelung bei mehreren Fahrzeuganhängern
2003
6 Seiten, 8 Bilder, 9 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Datenträger
Englisch