Combined decentralized longitudinal and lateral controller designfor truck convoys

摘要

We consider the combined longitudinal and lateral controllerdesign for a convoy of truck-trailers. The controller is developed foran application where the truck ahead has a target at its end which thefollowing truck tracks. The target, in this case, is a radar reflectingpatch and a transmitter/receiver radar system is used to measure therelative velocity and the inter-vehicle distance as well as the offsetangle between the radar reflecting patch and the longitudinal axis ofthe follower. The longitudinal controller accelerates or decelerates thecontrolled vehicle to keep the interspacing distance at a safety levelwhereas the lateral controller automatically steers the vehicle based onthe offset angle information. The proposed control logic is simulatedfor a convoy of two truck-trailers and the illustrative simulationresults are presented