Experiments in autonomous reversing of a tractor-trailer system

Trailer reversing is a problem frequently considered in the literature, usually with fairly complex non-linear control theory based approaches. In this paper, we overview our simple method for stabilizing a tractor-trailer system to a trajectory based on the notion of controlling the hitch-angle of the trailer rather than the steering angle of the tractor. The performance of this control method, as implemented on the CSIRO Autonomous Tractor, is then experimentally compared against a number of human drivers, showing that this method performs as well as a moderately skilled human driver, even though the system is significantly handicapped in terms of steering actuation speed and by errors in localization.