Design and Simulation of Steering Control Strategy for Four-Wheel Steering Hillside Tractor

Jiawang Zhu, Tianci Feng, Shuyi Kang, Du Chen, Xindong Ni and Ling Wang ()
Additional contact information
Jiawang Zhu: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Tianci Feng: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Shuyi Kang: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Du Chen: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Xindong Ni: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Ling Wang: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Steering control is vital for hillside tractors, and four-wheel-steering technology significantly enhances stability and flexibility. However, existing methods often overlook the slope–stability relationship. In order to address this issue, considering the impact of tractor wheels on the steering characteristics, a nonlinear three-degree-of-freedom dynamic model based on the basic requirements within a 15° range of slope angles was derived. Subsequently, a four-wheel steering control strategy for hillside tractors was designed based on this model, incorporating a fuzzy PID control algorithm. The dynamics model was validated on the high-fidelity Carsim/Simulink co-simulation platform, and relevant experiments were conducted in Matlab/Simulink. Results showed that fuzzy PID control reduced the yaw rate’s average settling time from 0.36 s to 0.1 s and the response value from 0.28 rad/s to 0.038 rad/s. In addition, the lateral velocity and sideslip angle responses closely matched ideal values. Thus, the tractor with four-wheel steering under fuzzy PID control exhibited improved wheel angle flexibility and higher tracking accuracy. Finally, hardware-in-the-loop-experiments were conducted, confirming the algorithm’s effectiveness in ensuring stability and meeting the requirements of semi-physical simulation scenarios. This research provides a foundation for potential applications in tractor manufacturing to improve control performance on hilly terrains.

Keywords: hillside tractor; four-wheel steering; steering control strategy; fuzzy PID; HIL (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/12/2238/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/12/2238/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:12:p:2238-:d:1538512

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().