Path Tracking of Four Wheel Steering Vehicle by Using Sliding Mode Control

Hiraoka, Toshihiro; Nishihara, Osamu; Kumamoto, Hiromitsu · 2003 · Transactions of the Institute of Systems Control and Information Engineers

DOI: 10.5687/iscie.16.520

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Summary

This paper proposes a sliding mode control strategy for the path tracking of four-wheel steering (4WS) vehicles, addressing the limitations of conventional two-wheel steering (2WS) systems in maintaining stability and precision under varying road conditions and disturbances. The research is motivated by the need for robust automatic steering in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), particularly for applications like Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) that require high-precision path following. The authors aim to decouple the control of front and rear wheels to simultaneously achieve path tracking and vehicle posture stabilization, which is difficult in 2WS systems where steering and posture control are coupled. The methodology utilizes a two-degree-of-freedom vehicle model assuming constant speed. The core innovation involves defining two control reference points: the center of percussion with respect to the rear wheels (for the front reference point) and the center of percussion with respect to the front wheels (for the rear reference point). By using state feedback, the authors decouple the path tracking problem into two independent sub-problems: tracking the front reference point via front-wheel steering and the rear reference point via rear-wheel steering. Sliding mode control laws are derived for both front and rear wheels to ensure robustness against parameter variations, specifically changes in cornering power due to road conditions, and external disturbances such as cross-winds. The control design includes matching conditions to handle uncertainties and defines switching functions to drive the system states to the sliding surface. Simulations were conducted using a nonlinear tire model to validate the proposed controller. The test scenario involved a vehicle traveling at 60 km/h on a snow-covered road, following a path consisting of straight lines and circular arcs with varying radii. The simulations compared the 4WS system against a 2WS baseline (where rear wheel angle is zero) and evaluated performance under cross-wind disturbances and actuator delays. Results demonstrated that the proposed 4WS controller achieves more stable and precise path tracking than the 2WS system. Specifically, the 4WS vehicle exhibited robust stability against perturbations in cornering power, path radius, and cross-wind disturbances. Notably, the steady-state path deviation was unaffected by cross-wind disturbances, a significant improvement over 2WS systems which showed significant yaw rate oscillations and rearward path deviations under similar conditions. The controller also maintained stability even when actuator delays were introduced, confirming its practical applicability for high-precision automated steering tasks.

Key finding

The proposed sliding mode control for four-wheel steering vehicles achieves more stable and precise path tracking than two-wheel steering vehicles while maintaining robust stability against cross-wind disturbances and cornering power variations.

Methodology

simulation_modeling

Provenance

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Topics

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• steering pattern