Abstract: Path-following control is an important issue of multi-axle drive vehicle. Addressing the multi-axle drive vehicle with nonholonomic constraint characters, the steering and kinematical constraint relationship of the vehicle are analyzed, and the kinematical and kinetic equations are established. The method based on the guidance-based principle is used to the path following and evaluate the along and cross track errors. Attitude angle formula about decreasing errors and updating law formula of path parameter are established. By designing Lyapunov function and analyzing the stability, the global uniform asymptotic stability of the vehicle system is certificated. The linearized vehicle dynamic model is deduced by nonlinear state feedback precise linearization. A sliding mode controller with disturbance observer is proposed to realize the speed tracking of vehicle. Then the simulation test of path following with a typical motion path is completed. The simulation results show that the proposed tracking control strategy can satisfactorily realize the tracking for the given target path of multi-axle drive vehicle.

Key words: multi-axle drive vehicle;nonholonomic constraint;path-following;sliding mode control