Intelligent controller for backing up a tractor-trailer truck using state transition table

The paper introduces a technique for constructing a look-up table contains information about selected points in the state space of the nonlinear process to be controlled. The new states to which a specific state point transfers when the process is issued different control commands are registered. The controller designed to make use of the table depends on the heuristic assumption that the behavior of the process at a specific state space point is similar to its behavior at a nearby point provided that the process is issued a similar control command at each state. The table design aspects for reducing the storage requirements and minimizing the computational effort for producing control decisions are investigated. The applicability of the controller is tested for the Tractor-Trailer Truck steering problem backing up at a constant speed. The truck backs up in an environment contains obstacles to be avoided. Computer simulation of the truck and its controller has demonstrated workability.