Lateral Control of Heavy Duty Vehicles for Automated Highway System: Experimental Study on a Tractor Semi-trailer

The project "Lateral Control of Heavy Duty Vehicles for Automated Highway Systems" (MOU 313) represents continuation of the heavy vehicle research in PATH which was initiated in 1993 with MOU 129, "Steering and Braking Control of Heavy Duty Vehicles" and was followed with MOU 242, "Steering and Braking Control of Heavy Duty Vehicles". While the emphasis of the earlier projects was on analysis of lateral control for heavy vehicles, namely, model development and control design, the emphasis of MOU 313, has been experimental evaluation of the models and the controllers developed so far. The success of preliminary designs has given PATH the confidence to conduct testing on differential braking. In the remaining year of the project, we aim to achieve hands off operation at highway speeds and use differential braking for performance enhancement of the lateral control.