Backward Path-following Control of Mobile Robots with Trailers

The backward movement control for a mobile robot with n trailers to follow a given path is investigated in this paper. First, the iterative inverse velocity relationship for the robot-trailer system with off-axle hitching is derived. By the use of the control design scheme based on inverse velocity relationship and output-feedback linearization method, two backward path-following control laws are presented for different task requirements and the convergence of closed-loop systems is analyzed. Experiment result demonstrates effectiveness of the proposed method.