Steering Three-Input Nonholonomic Systems: The Fire Truck Example

In this article we steer wheeled nonholonomic systems that can be represented in a so-called chained form. Sufficient condi tions for converting a multiple-input system with nonholonomic velocity constraints into a multiple-chain, single-generator chained form via state feedback and a coordinate transfor mation are presented along with sinusoidal and polynomial control algorithms to steer such systems. Our example is the three-input nonholonomic system of a fire truck, or tiller truck. In this three-axle system, the control inputs are the steering velocities of both the first and third (or tiller) axles and the forward driving velocity of the truck. Simulation results are given for parallel parking, left hand turning, right hand turn ing, and changing lanes. Comparison is made to the same vehicle without tiller steering.

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