Robust tracking controller design for active dolly steering

Journal article, 2018

In this paper different actuation level steering control methods for an A-double vehicle combination (tractor-semitrailer-dolly-semitrailer) are proposed. The aim of the paper is to show viability of advanced actuation control strategies on a practical vehicular application. Three different types of robust controllers are proposed: a robust Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller, an output feedback linear Hinf controller and an induced L2-norm minimizing Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) controller. All controllers are augmented with anti-windup compensators to respect steering angle and steering rate limits. Each model based controller robustly rejects external disturbances and tracks a reference steering angle, generated by motion control system. Frequency- and time domain analysis proves that Hinf and LPV controllers outperform PID controller in terms of reference tracking and disturbance rejection. Comparative simulation scenarios are provided on the basis of Volvo Group Trucks Technology’s high fidelity vehicle simulator.