Fixed-time adaptive sliding mode-based active rollover prevention control of automated guided vehicles via improved super-twisting observer

As an important component of automated guided vehicle (AGV) active safety systems, the active rollover prevention (ARP) control has been widely studied. In this paper, a fixed-time adaptive sliding mode (FTASM) control strategy based on nested adaptive law (NAL) and improved super-twisting observer (ISTO) is developed for the AGV. Firstly, the lateral and roll motion dynamics of AGV are established, and the ARP problem is transformed into the yaw stability control with constraints. Subsequently, a faster fixed-time stable system-based FTASM composite controller is proposed to guarantee a fixed and faster convergence time of the yaw rate tracking error, such that the rollover stability will reach a region of permissible risk. The adoption of NAL enables the adaptive controller to automatically search the minimum switching gain satisfying the reaching condition of sliding mode, thus the conservative assumption constraint of the disturbance upper bound is released. In addition, an ISTO is developed to estimate the unknown disturbance to further improve the control robustness and attenuate the control chattering. The closed-loop stability analysis is rigorously given by Lyapunov theory. Finally, the performance of the proposed control strategy is validated by hardware-in-loop simulations with Adams and Matlab software and an actual steer-by-wire plant.