Abstract
A semiautomatic rectilinear control system of a four-wheel steering vehicle was developed, and the basic characteristics were examined. The purpose of our semiautomatic rectilinear control system is to improve the straightness of a locus of working vehicles that is manipulated by an operator. Using this system, the operator concentrates on the control of the transverse displacement of the vehicle, while the attitude angle is controlled by the system automatically. As the directional sensor required in such a system, an oscillatory type yaw-rate sensor was employed. The vehicle described in this paper was a biaxial and independent steering type four-wheel steering vehicle described in the first paper as well. In this report, the transverse displacement was measured by eyes of the operator, and the attitude angle was measured by the oscillatory type yaw-rate sensor. As expected, the results of the lane changing experiments showed that the straightness of the locus of the vehicle was ensured, even if the control by the operator was limited only to the transverse displacement. It was expected that such technology will be useful for the popularization of vehicles for remote controlled agriculture in the future.
