Citation

Morales J, Mandow A, Martínez JL, Reina AJ, García-Cerezo A. Sensors (Basel) 2013; 13(4): 4485-4498.

Affiliation

Dpto. Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain. jlmartinez@uma.es.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/s130404485

PMID

23552102

Abstract

Driving vehicles with one or more passive trailers has difficulties in both forward and backward motion due to inter-unit collisions, jackknife, and lack of visibility. Consequently, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for multi-trailer combinations can be beneficial to accident avoidance as well as to driver comfort. The ADAS proposed in this paper aims to prevent unsafe steering commands by means of a haptic handwheel. Furthermore, when driving in reverse, the steering-wheel and pedals can be used as if the vehicle was driven from the back of the last trailer with visual aid from a rear-view camera. This solution, which can be implemented in drive-by-wire vehicles with hitch angle sensors, profits from two methods previously developed by the authors: safe steering by applying a curvature limitation to the leading unit, and a virtual tractor concept for backward motion that includes the complex case of set-point propagation through on-axle hitches. The paper addresses system requirements and provides implementation details to tele-operate two different off- and on-axle combinations of a tracked mobile robot pulling and pushing two dissimilar trailers.

Language: en