Adaptive Line-of-Sight Tracking Control for a Tractor-Trailer Vehicle System With Multiple Constraints

In this paper, for the line-of-sight (LOS) tracking problem of a tractor-trailer vehicle system, we propose a novel adaptive constrained tracking control algorithm for the trailer to track a desired trajectory, while satisfying multiple performance and feasibility constraint requirements during the operation. To deal with these constraint requirements, both a universal barrier function approach and a novel state transformation scheme are incorporated to deal with constraints of different nature. An adaptive control structure is introduced to deal with system parameter uncertainties and external disturbances. We show that for the LOS distance and angle tracking errors, exponential convergence into small neighbourhoods of equilibrium can be guaranteed, with the convergence rate depending on the control input and adaptive gains. In the end, a simulation example and an experimental study further demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.