This study focuses on the anti-rollover control problem for autonomous semi-trailer tank trucks and proposes an anti-rollover path tracking control algorithm suitable for autonomous driving scenarios. A simplified semi-trailer tank truck model is established in the controller, modeling liquid as a single pendulum considering both lateral and roll inputs, and an anti-rollover path tracking algorithm that utilizes it is developed based on multi-constraint model predictive control (MPC). The equivalent lateral load transfer rate (LTR), liquid sloshing angle, and angular velocity are used as constraints to achieve multi-objective optimization for path tracking, sloshing suppression, and rollover prevention. A vehicle-fluid coupling co-simulation platform based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is built to verify the control performance under extreme scenarios of left turning, high-speed single-lane change (SLC), and short-distance double-lane change (DLC). Additionally, the similarity principle for experimental validation using a down-scale model tank truck is derived, and experiments are conducted on the model semi-trailer tank truck under the DLC scenario. Through simulation and experimental verification, the proposed anti-rollover path tracking algorithm demonstrates acceptable tracking performance while ensuring that no rollover is carried out under extreme conditions, limiting the angle of $|LTR|\lt 0.75$ and sloshing within $- 20\circ $ - $20\circ $ , reducing the angle of sloshing by a maximum of 42% in the experiment. Moreover, the real-time capability of the proposed algorithm meets the requirements for practical applications with a peak time consumption of one control step less than $20~ms$ in the controller tested.
Anti-Rollover Path Tracking Control for an Autonomous Semi-Trailer Tank Truck
IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems ; 26 , 7 ; 9932-9947
2025-07-01
5671989 byte
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English