A Multisteering Trailer System Conversion Into Chained Form Using Dynamic Feedback
A Multisteering Trailer System Conversion Into Chained Form Using Dynamic Feedback
A Multisteering Trailer System Conversion Into Chained Form Using Dynamic Feedback
Abstract-This paper examines the kinematic model of an for baggage handling [SI. In all of these applications it is felt
autonomous mobile robot system consistingof a chain of steerable that a multisteering system will be more maneuverable than a
cars and passive trailers, liked together with rigid bars. The single-steering system.
state space and kinematic equations of the system are defined,
and it is shown how these kinematic equations may be converted Such systems are modeled as having one constraint on each
into a multiinput chained form. The advantages of the chained axle: that the wheels are allowed to roll but not to slip. These
form are that many methods are available for the open-loop nonslipping constraints are nonholonomic, or nonintegrable,
steering of such systems as well as for point-stabilization;some and do not reduce the reachable configuration space of the
of these methods are discussed here. Dynamic state feedback is
mobile robot. The existence of differentials in systems of this
used to convert the system to this multiinput chained form. It is
shown how the dynamic state feedback that is used in this paper kind results in the two wheels of a single axle moving through
corresponds to adding, in front of the steerable cars, a chain of different amounts in the course of a turn [l]; this has not been
virtual axles which diverges from the original chain of trailers. explicitly taken into account in this work.
Two different example systems are also presented, along with The present system appears at first glance to be a straightfor-
simulation results for a parallel-parkingmaneuver.
ward extension of the systems considered in previous work [4],
[16], [18], [19], but the main motivation in writing this paper is
I. INTRODUCTION to show how much richer and more complex the current system
I N this paper, the motion planning problem for a car-like is in its structure. As before, the kinematic equations will be
mobile robot pulling a combination of n passive trailers and converted into a chained form. The transformation, however,
m - 1 car-like robots is considered and solved. The controls will require dynamic state feedback. Motivated by the physical
available to the system are the velocity (throttle) of the lead structure of the constraints involved in this particular problem,
car and the steering velocities of all m car-like robots. The the dynamic state feedback that is used consists of adding
system is referred to as a multisteering n-trailer system. It can virtual axles to each of the steerable cars in the system.
be thought of as a generalization of an n-trailer system, in The chained form, which was introduced in [14] and used
which the only two controls available were the driving and in earlier work on the single-steering n-trailer system in [16]
steering velocities of the lead car, and for which the motion and [19], enables a variety of previously developed steering
planning problem was considered and solved in [16] and [19]. and stabilization techniques to be applied.
Mobile robot systems of this kind are of interest in practical A particularly intriguing aspect of this work is its con-
applications; part of the motivation for this work came from nection with an emerging body of literature on differentially
previous work on the fire truck [4], [18]. Also, we have been flat systems by Hiess and his co-workers [6], [15]. They
told anecdotally about the construction of such trailer systems have shown that chained form systems are a special case
with multisteering for use in nuclear environments [5] and also of differentially flat systems: the bottoms of the chains in
Manuscript received December 31, 1993. This work was supported in part the chained form play the role of flat outputs. For the two
by NSF under Grant IRI-904490. D. Tilbury was suppoaed in part by an input case, it was pointed out by Martin [ l l ] and Murray [131
AT&T Ph.D. fellowship. 0. J. S0rdalen was supported in part by the Center that, modulo somewhat different regularity conditions, chained
of Maritime Control Systems, Norwegian Institute of Technology, and by
SINTEF. form systems are equivalent to flat systems for the type of
D. Tilbury was with the Department of Electrical Engineering and drift-free systems that arise in nonholonomic motion planning.
Computer Sciences, University of Califomia, Berkeley CA 94720 USA. The results of the current paper indicate that this is not true
She is now with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied
Mechanics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA. E-mail: for systems with more than two inputs without allowing for
[email protected]. the possibility of dynamic state feedback. As such this work
0. J. Serdalen was with the Department of Engineering Cybernetics, provides a valuable counterpoint to the results of Gardner and
the Norweigian Institute of Technology, 7034 Trondheim, Norway. He is
now with ABB Corporate Research, N-1361 Billingstad, Norway. E-mail: Shadwick [7] and Bushnell et al. [3].
[email protected].
L. Bushnell was with the Department of Electrical Engineering and U. THE SYSTEM MODEL
Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720 USA.
She is now with the U.S. Army Research Office, Research Triangle Park, Consider a multisteering trailer system, i.e., a system of
NC 27709 USA. n (passive) trailers and m (steerable) cars linked together
S . S. Sastry is with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Sciences, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720 USA. by rigid bars, sketched in Fig. 1. Each body (trailer or car)
IEEE Log Number 9414514. is modeled as having only one axle, since, as has been
1042-296W95$04.00 0 1995 IEEE
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TILBURY et aL: MULTISTEERING TRAILER SYSTEM 809
passive trailers, these calculations are still valid when the front
body (z - 1) is steerable.
The linear velocity of body i - 1 can be broken into its
two perpendicular components: one is in the direction of the
linear velocity of body i, and the other is along the direction
of the angular velocity of body i. The two linear velocities are
related by the cosine of the angle between them, - y 7n A-"J+' (passive or steerable)
velocity relationships (1) and (2). The inputs are the angular trailer determines the evolution of all the state variables of the
velocities of the steering axles, { w l , .... w"}, and the linear system, since the ratio of their derivatives will give the angle
velocity of the first car, U:. of the trailer through the relationship
tan 8, =. ,Yn
III. CONVERSION
TO CHAINEDFORM Xn
Now that the kinematic behavior of the multisteering system The hitch relationships can then be used to find the position
has been defined, it will be shown how these equations can be of the second-to-last trailer, and its angle, and so forth. This
converted to multiinput chained form. was also noted in [15] and [19].
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810 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION, VOL. 11, NO. 6, DECEMBER 1995
relationships
)),
will determine the trajectories of all the states through the
Fig. 4.
ae X(&
of flat outputs can be found. Moreover, there may be many being the angle of another axle added in front of the original
choices for the flat outputs. The multiinput chained form (4) steerable axle, and the new input CII is the steering velocity of
is differentially flat with flat outputs zoo, . . . z,,+~,
)m this “virtual” axle. This is represented in Fig. 5. In addition,
although chained form systems with more than one generator the relative degree of the body angle Q with respect to the new
are not in general flat. (virtual) steering input is now equal to two.
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TILBURY et al.: MULTISTEERING TRAILER SYSTEM 811
9
$ $2 ?'o...
Fig. 5. A unicycle with a "virtual" extension, interpreted as another axle ...........
added in front of the original robot. .........
j first virtual extension
U = COS (IC, - Q ) u u ~ .
x = COS Qw m-1
........ second steering train
y = sin Qw . .
..............
e l s t e e r i n g train
Remark: Any valid trajectory y = (z, y, 8 , 4) of the
system (7) can be projected down, via the standard projection ...............
T : IR2 x (S1)2+ Et2 x SI,to give a valid trajectory ~(y) =
= (x,y, 6') of (6). Also, for any trajectory C of (6) for which Fig. 6. The multisteering system, showing the virtual axles that must be
O(t) is C1 and for which 8 = 0 whenever ri: = y = 0, there added to convert the system into multiinput chained form.
exists a trajectory y such that ~ ( 7=)C.Trajectories where the
unicycle spins about its axis without moving either forward or After continuing similarly for 42, . , + m - l , y, a total of
a
backward cannot be achieved with the extended model. n3 virtual axles will have been added in front of the jth
This is the motivation for a dynamic state feedback that adds steerable axle, as has been sketched in Fig. 6. Now there are
virtual axles to the system. Each virtual axle that is added in the same number of passive axles between an axle 0: on the
front of a steerable axle increases by one the relative degree chain and any (virtual) steerable axle, and this is the same
of its hitch angle with respect to the steering input at the hitch. as the number of passive axles between the axle Qq and the
front steering wheel 6;. After these virtual axles have been
C. Virtual Extension for the Multisteering System added, the jth steering train now contains n3 axles, of which
It will now be described in detail how the kinematic model only n3 - n3-1 are real (physical). The only axles which are
(3) is locally converted to a multiinput chained form using considered as steerable in this formulation are the first axles
dynamic state feedback and a coordinate transformation. of each virtual extension, or 6; for j E { 1, .... m}.
As described in Section III-A, the states at the bottoms of The state variables that have been introduced, which corre-
the chains are chosen to be 2, 4l,.... 4m-1, y. Consider the spond to the angles of these virtual trailers, are denoted by Q:
front-most hitch angle 4'; this will become the state at the f o r j E (2, + . e , m } , i E (0, - " , nJ-1-1}.Theirderivatives
bottom of the first chain, or z:,+~. Its relative degree with are defined as if they were actual axles,
respect to the first steering input u 1is equal to n1+ 2, or one 0; = p J ,
more than the number of axles in the first steering train. In . 1
order to define all the states z1 in the first chain by (5), q5l Q: = - sin (Q:-l - 0:) (8)
will need to be differentiated a total of n1+ 2 times. However, LI
since 4' depends on all the angles behind it in the trailer for j E (2, .... m} and i E (1, .... n3-1 - l}, where LI
system according to (3), the relative degree of $1with respect is an arbitrarily chosen positive parameter (usually chosen to
to any of the other steering inputs u2,.... um will be equal be equal to one for simplicity). The velocities of the virtual
to two. axles are defined in the same manner as the velocities of the
The derivatives of these inputs should not appear in the real axles, (1) and (2).
coordinate transformation. In order to increase the relative The new (fictitious) inputs are denoted by p3. for j E
degree of $1with respect to the other steering inputs, n1 virtual (1, . - a , m } , and as a notational convenience let p1 := ul,
axles will be added in front of each steering axle for since no virtual axles need be added in front of the first car.
j E (2, e . ., m}. The virtual inputs are temporarily denoted These inputs p3 represent the angular velocity of the front car
by 123, the angular velocities of the axles at the front of each in each virtual extension. In effect, the angular velocities of
virtual chain. the steering wheels which are in the middle of the chain are no
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-
812 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION, VOL. 11, NO. 6, DECEMBER 1995
longer directly controlled; rather, they are controlled indirectly An extended kinematic model can now be derived in the
through this virtual steering train. Therefore the states in the subset D. To this end, the input w is introduced as the linear
extended system will be functions of the (true) inputs w3 and velocity in the 3: direction of the last body in the last steering
their derivatives. The true kinematic inputs W J are of course train,
the derivatives of the actual steering angles, A
w = cos erm
Wn”,. (11)
U3 =O’ nJ-1
- The linear velocities of the other bodies w,” can then be
- sin(8i3-l-1 - Q;J-J42-l-17 (9) expressed as multiples of this generating velocity w,
for j E (2, . . . , m}. The complete configuration space of the
extended system can now be defined as
* 1 [z, o;, . . . , 81
nl’
41, 8 01
2 . ..,.. , The linear velocity at a wheel 0,” will depend on all the
difference angles behind it, fii, e;:‘,
.. ., ~ 9 z ~ -~.
Although
67, . . , Cm,YIT
‘
the vector @: contains more angles than this, the velocity v,”
E (sl)N+2m-l ~2
will be written as a function of 63:. Using (1) and (2), it can
where N = C,”=,n, is the number of passive axles, both real be shown that the function s ; ( s ) will have the form
and virtual, in the extended system.
In this paper, it is assumed that the configuration of the
system with the dynamic feedback is in a subset D of the
extended configuration space, defined as the set where all of
the relative angles between adjacent axles and hitches are less
than 7r/2,
- 4‘) cos (0:;’ - &}.
D 2 {* E (Sl)N+2”-1 x Et2: 18; - e:+ll < -,
ll
2
x sec (12)
This function is smooth in D .
It is also possible to write the derivative of the states in the
The kinematic equations are well-defined on this set. compact form
to the tails of the steering train starting from the ith trailer functions f;ZJ+l to be the derivatives of the hitch angles, 4 3 ,
(which is real if z 2 n3-1 and virtual if 0 5 i < n3-l).Thus, divided by the velocity ‘U. Recall that the equation for the
we have the following. kinematics of 4 was given in (3), so that the functions f A J + ,
Thevector@:,forj E (1, ..., m-l}, i E (0, ” - , n3},
0
are
refers to the angles of the axles in the jth steering train
behlnd (and including) the level of the zth axle. The hitch
angle 4’ is also included.
The vector
0 e:,
for z E (0, ..., nm}, refers to the
angles of the axles in the mth steering train behind (and
including) the level of the ith axle. Since there is no hitch
angle behind the last steenng train, the position y of the
midpoint of the last axle has been included.
a The vector 63,” groups all of the angles of the steering for j E { 1, . . . , m - l}. The final function that is defined
trains from j to m for the axles from i to the end of the here is the derivative of the y coordinate of the last trailer.
jth train n3.The vector 63; contains all of the angles of
all the axles, both real and virtual, in the entire extended
From (3) it can be seen that equating y = fzm+l
‘U will give
system.
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TILBURY et aL: MULTISTEERING TRAILER SYSTEM 813
The kinematic model (3) with the dynamic feedback (8) can where & is defined such that
then be rewritten locally in the following manner:
- 03 "3 T T
5203 - [ 0, (00) I
4'
-0--
P j> j E (1, e * . , m}
*j
gi = f;(&l)?l, j E (1, * . a , m } ,i E (1, a - . , nj} and is found from (10) and (17).
j E (1, * * . , m - l}
Theorem 1: Let the coordinates 2," , j E (0, . . . , m}, i E
= f:J+l(@:,)u,
$j
(0, +
, nj l},be given by (18)-(22) and the inputs u3,j E
Y = frm+dfgm) U (0, m}, be given by (23) and (24). Then the kinematic
. a . ,
z+
,;l = $3, * e ' ,
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814 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION, VOL. 11, NO. 6, DECEMBER 1995
block is only one-by-one, consider it first. By definition 2: = parameterize the input space with at least as many parameters
II: = go, thus JO,O= 1 which is nonzero. as there are states, integrate the chained form equations
Now consider the other diagonal blocks, J3,?, and note first symbolically, and finally, solve for the input parameters in
of all that the lower-right entry in each block is equal to 1, terms of the desired initial and final states.
since by definition Various approaches for feedback stabilization of chained
3 3
form systems are also mentioned. Although most of the work
%,+1 = 4n,+l in these areas have concentrated on two-input systems, the
=i $3
y
j E (I,
j=m.
m - 1) decoupled form of the multiinput chained form system will
allow the techniques to be generalized in a straightforward
manner.
To calculate the next diagonal entry, note that zA3,which was In this section no particular system of trailers or nonlinear
defined in (21), is a function of BA,, and the dependence on equations will be considered. The problem that is solved in
q i J = 6)& is through a tangent function. Therefore, this section is as follows: Given a system of equations in
multiinput chained form (4) and a desired initial and final
state, find inputs which will steer the system from the initial
state to the final state.
1
sec2 - 4 ~cos
) (0;;' -q ~)si:~(~iT~)
A. Polynomial Inputs
G,+1
j~ (1,...,m-l} One approach to the point-to-point steering problem is to
sec2 Qcmj = m hold the first input uo constant and identically equal to one
over the entire trajectory. The time needed to steer is then
where the function s: is the velocity function defined in (12)
determined from the change in the 20" coordinate,
and is nonzero in D.
The other diagonal entries are found similarly. Since each (25)
x: is a function of only Bi, and depends on 8: = q: through a
tangent function, each diagonal element of the Jacobian matrix The parameters for the remaining inputs are chosen to be
will be a product of secants and cosines of difference angles coefficients of a Taylor polynomial,
and will be nonzero on D (indeed it will be equal to one at
the origin).
The input transformation can also be seen to be nonsingular.
Defining -p to be the vector of the virtual inputs,
P = [Pl,
- " ' 7 P"1, um = vo + v1t + . . . + vnm+ltn,+l (26)
and g to be the vector of the transformed inputs, with the number of parameters on each input chosen to
be equal to the number of states in its chain. The chained
form equations can be integrated symbolically and the input
the Jacobian matrix of this transformation can be seen to be parameters a 3 ,,B3, . . v3 can be found in terms of the initial
)
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TILBURY et al.: MULTISTEERING TRAILER SYSTEM 815
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816 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION, VOL. 11, NO. 6, DECEMBER 1995
Fig. S. The five-axle, two-steering system showing the virtual exhension which is added in front of the second steering wheel. Such a system could be
envisioned as being used in a nuclear power plant or in a dangerous area where maneuverability around narrow passageways is of utmost importance.
chained form system and converting it into power form, which kinematics of the second steering axle 6’: are thus altered: it
is diffeomorphic to chained form. The control laws, which are is no longer steered directly, but through the virtual steering
time-varying functions of the state, will stabilize the system wheel.
in power f o m . The bottoms of the chains in the multiinput chained form are
Many of the other results which have been presented in the the ( 5 , y) coordinates of the rear axle and the hitch angle &,
literature for two-input chained form systems could also be and the rest of the coordinates are found through mfferentiation
extended to multiinput single-generator chained form systems according to (5),
in a straightforward manner.
A. Fire Truck
Although the fire truck example has been examined exten-
sively in previous work, it can also be considered in terms
of the algorithms described in this paper, and in fact, the
formulation is somewhat different than in [4]. In that paper,
the bottoms of the chains in the multiinput chained form were (the chains are written upside down here to show the order in
chosen to be the (5, y) position of the passive axle along which the coordinates are calculated: starting at the bottom).
with the angle of the trailer (see Fig. 7). Because of the The resulting equations are in multichained form.
relative simplicity of the three-axle system, that choice allowed
kinematic equations to be put into multiinput chained form 3. A Five-Axle System
without using dynamic state feedback. The fire truck fits into Consider a five-axle system with two steering wheels,
the class of multisteering trailer systems, thus the kinematic depicted in Fig. 8. In effect, this system is a fire truck with two
equations can also be converted into multiinput chained form passive trailers. With these extra trailers, the (2, y) position
using a virtual extension (and a different choice of states at of the first passive axle, along with the trailer angle $Iwill ,
the bottoms of the chains). Although this extension is not no longer define the entire state of the system.
necessary for this particular system, no systematic procedure is The kinematic equations for this system can be found from
known for transforming a general multisteering trailer system (3). The system consists of two steering trains, the first has
into multiinput chained form without using the sort of virtual length two and the second has length three. One virtual axle
extension that is proposed in this paper. will need to be added to the second steering train since there
The kinematic equations for the fire truck can be obtained is one passive axle in front of its steering car; see Fig. 8.
from (3) and will not be repeated here. This new state corresponding to the angle of the virtual axle
The system has two steering trains, the first has length two is denoted e:, and the kinematics of must be changed to
and the second has length one. Since there is one passive represent that the angular velocity of the second steering wheel
axle in front of the second steering train, this train will be is no longer controlled directly by the input w 2 but indirectly
augmented by the addition of one virtual axle as described through the virtual steering wheel Qg.
The input p2 will now
in Section III-C. The angle of this virtual axle is denoted control the virtual steering velocity 6’;. When needed, the real
0;. A sketch of the extended system is shown in Fig. 7. The input w2 can be calculated as the derivative of the angle 0:.
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TILBURY e l al.: MULTISTEERING TRAILER SYSTEM 817
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As noted in Section IV-A, polynomial inputs are not imme- 40, no. 5, pp. 802-819, May 1995.
diately suited to this type of trajectory since the time needed [20] G. C. Walsh and L. G. Busbnell, “Stabilization of multiple input chained
to steer the system, computed from (25),would come out to be form control systems,” Syst. Contr. Lett., vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 227-234,
June 1995.
zero and the algorithm would fail. Therefore the trajectory was
planned in two steps, choosing an intermediate point (z, y) =
(30, 10). The virtual angles were chosen equal to zero in both
the initial and final states, and the virtual hitch length was Dawn Tilbury (S’91-M’95) received the Bach-
chosen as L: = 1. The procedure is first to transform the initial elor’s degree in electrical engineering from the
and final states into the chained form coordinates. Then, using University of Minnesota in 1989. From 1989 to
1994, she was a graduate student at the University of
the polynomial inputs methods discussed in Section IV-A, the California at Berkeley, where she received the M.S.
chained form inputs needed to steer the system are found. and Ph.D. degrees in 1992 and 1994, respectively.
These inputs can then be transformed back to the original She has been a visiting scholar at LAAS, Toulouse,
France; LSS, Paris, France; M.I.T., Cambndge; and
coordinates to find the virtual inputs, and the real inputs can Harvard University, Cambridge.
finally be calculated using the relationship (9). She is currently with the Department of Mechani-
The simulation was performed on the system in the chained cal Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as an Assistant Professor. Her research interests
form coordinates, then the inverse coordinate transformation are in the area of nonlinear control with applications to mobile robots and
was used on the simulation data to obtain the trajectory in transportation.
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818 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION, VOL. 11, NO. 6, DECEMBER 1995
Authorized licensed use limited to: INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KANPUR. Downloaded on July 24,2023 at 11:30:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.