A simple and efficient control scheme to reverse a tractor-trailer system on a trajectory

Trailer reversing is a problem frequently considered in the literature, usually with fairly complex non-linear control theory based approaches. In this paper, we present a simple method for stabilizing a tractor-trailer system to a trajectory based on the notion of controlling the hitch-angle of the trailer rather than the steering angle of the tractor. The method is intuitive, provably stable, and shown to be viable through various experimental results conducted on our test platform, the CSIRO autonomous tractor.