N-trailer mobile robots: kinematic properties and cascaded control (1/2)

martes 8 may. 2018 15:30 → 17:30 America/Santiago

Edificio San Agustín, SJ

Abstract: In the field of articulated vehicles one can distinguish a special class of the so-called N-trailer mobile robots (in short: N-trailers) comprising an active tractor and an arbitrary number of N passive trailers interconnected in an open kinematic chain. Kinematic analysis of the N-trailer structures, with nonholonomic constraints imposed, leads to their description in the form of a highly nonlinear driftless dynamical system. Especially interesting properties of this kind of system reveal several sources of the well-known difficulties with motion planning and feedback control design for the N-trailers. On the other hand, ubiquitous usage of these kind of systems in the freight delivery, agriculture, and in public transportation indicate also their important practical meaning. Upon the current trends observed in the field of intelligent transportation systems one can predict that in the near future the motion and maneuvering with articulated vehicles will be more and more automated, leading finally to the N-trailer robots and intelligent autonomous N-trailer vehicles. The lecture will encompass classification of the N-trailer structures and description of their selected kinematic properties together with their consequences for control. Furthermore, we will consider a highly scalable and modular cascade-like control system structure devoted to the N-trailer robots allowing for the agile execution of both classical and non-classical control tasks in a flexible and practically useful manner. The lecture will be illustrated by the results of numerical simulations and experimental trials supported by animations and short movies collected during the laboratory tests with a 3-trailer articulated vehicle.