Abstract: In order to solve the urban traffic congestion problem and meet travel demand from city residents in daily life, characteristics of rail vehicle transportation capacity and low infrastructure cost of traditional articulated vehicle are considered, and then a train-like vehicle with multi-articulated carriages is proposed. The train-like vehicle with multi-articulated carriages has marshalling capability and large capacity making the transportation efficiency high, moreover, the longitudinal symmetry structure and the motion control method based on differential wheel speed make the driving flexibility of the articulated vehicle high. Path-tacking method for articulated vehicle is studied, and control strategy based on non-time factor is proposed to design the speed law of the train-like vehicle's driving wheels. Lyapunov function is constructed, and then Lyapunov direct method is utilized to prove that the path-tracking errors decreases over time, i.e., the train-like vehicle with multi-articulated carriages can run along the path, moreover, this method has no limits on the number of the carriers of the train-like vehicle, which guarantees the flexible marshalling of the train-like vehicle. Simulation model of train-like vehicle with multi-carriage is established, and path-tracking simulations with straight-line path, circular path and sinusoidal path are done. The simulation results show that the tracking control method based on non-time factor is able to control the train-like vehicle track many kind of paths.

Key words: automatic path following, non-time reference, speed control law, train-like vehicle