Increase the stability of an articulated long vehicle by active disturbance rejection backstepping sliding mode control method

Today, the use of articulated long vehicles is surging. The main reasons for tendency of utilizing these vehicles is use of less tractor unit fitted to carry two or more trailers. In other words, in order to carry the same amount of goods, instead of using some tractor semi-trailers, we can make use of fewer articulated long vehicles. Reduction of fuel consumption, a significant decrease in the production of greenhouse gasses as well as using less manpower to direct the vehicle to carry the same load which is related to typical articulated vehicle is of other advantages of long articulated vehicles. The major problems of these vehicles are poor maneuverability at low speed and inappropriate lateral performance at high speed, which would lead to crashes and financial damages. Hence, a control system is required for enhancing the safety of these vehicles, improving the performance of long vehicles and preventing from being unstable. In this study, after mining and verifying the dynamic model, a new control method based on a combination of active disturbance rejection control and backstepping sliding mode control for adjusting lateral dynamic of articulated long vehicles has been utilized. The results portray the superiority of this new method than LQR and sliding mode controllers.