A MULTISTEERING TRAILER SYSTEM - CONVERSION INTO CHAINED FORM USING DYNAMIC FEEDBACK

This paper examines the kinematic model of an autonomous mobile robot system consisting of a chain of steerable cars and passive trailers, l inked together with rigid bars. The state space and kinematic equation s of the system are defined, and it is shown how these kinematic equat ions may be converted into a multiinput chained form. The advantages o f the chained form are that many methods are available for the open-lo op steering of such systems as well as for point-stabilization; some o f these methods are discussed here. Dynamic state feedback is used to convert the system to this multiinput chained form. It is shown how th e dynamic state feedback that is used in this paper corresponds to add ing, in front of the steerable cars, a chain of virtual axles which di verges from the original chain of trailers. Two different example syst ems are also presented, along with simulation results for a parallel-p arking maneuver.