Nonlinear control for a convoy-like vehicle (Q1975582)

This paper presents a nonlinear control law for a set of unconnected carts that are expected to move as a convoy-like vehicle. This problem arises from many current applications like mobile robots, public transportation, optimization of traffic jams in public highways. Among all the possible concepts of such multi-body systems motion, the ``follow the leader'' behavior is the most relevant because the resulting surface swept by the whole set of vehicles will then be equal to the surface swept by the first leading cart. This behavior is useful in applications where the multi-body system is required to move in clustered environments such as mines, factories, nuclear power-stations or public ways. The authors consider a purely kinematical model which takes into account that advanced velocities and rotational velocities of the unconnected carts are independent and considered as being the control inputs. The control problem, consisting in the derivation of a feedback law for all rotational velocities and advanced velocities so that the system states tend asymptotically to prescribed states, is solved by means of the direct Lyapunov method. The control law is based on feedback design for a train-like vehicle consisting of connected carts, which was derived by the authors.