Equations of the Steering Characteristics of Multi-articulated Vehicles at Low Speeds

Abstract

This paper formulates the equations of multi-articulated vehicle behaviour at low speeds with the effect of the centrifugal force being neglected. At low speeds, there is a simple relation between the direction of motion of the vehicle and generalized steering wheel angle, and the turning behaviour mainly depends upon the geometry of the steering linkage.
Derived equations can describe not only the general motion of the system which is travelling at a steady low forward speed but also its backward manuevouer at a low speed. The trailer wheel trajectories obtained by the experiments using a small-scale model of a four-wheeled tractor trailer agree well with the theoretical ones, which are calculated from these equations by Lunge-Kutta Method.