Safe trajectory planning and tracking for tractor semi-trailers in steering collision avoidance scenarios

Collision avoidance technology provides an effective solution for improving vehicle driving safety. However, current research primarily focuses on passenger cars and small commercial vehicles, neglecting tractor semi-trailers, which have elongated body lengths and complex dynamic characteristics. There is still a significant research gap in the application of collision avoidance control technology for tractor semi-trailers. To address this, this paper proposes a safe trajectory planning and tracking strategy for steering collision avoidance scenarios, aimed at enhancing the driving safety of tractor semi-trailers. To tackle the challenge of accurately predicting the pose of the semi-trailer during collision avoidance trajectory planning, a real-time trajectory planning method combining model predictive control and artificial potential field is proposed. Then, a tracking error model considering both lateral and yaw errors of the tractor semi-trailer is established to address the off-tracking phenomenon, and a linear quadratic regulator control strategy is proposed. Finally, static and dynamic collision avoidance scenarios are designed to validate the proposed strategy. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed control strategy effectively ensures the safe collision avoidance maneuver of the tractor semi-trailer.