Dynamic modeling of articulated vehicles for automated highway systems

This paper is concerned with dynamic modeling of articulated vehicles in automated highway systems (AHS). A modeling approach for roll, pitch and yaw motions of articulated vehicles is proposed and a complex model for a tractor-semitrailer vehicle is derived using this approach. A simplified linear model, which includes lateral and yaw motions, is obtained from this complex model based on the assumptions that the longitudinal velocity is constant and that the vehicle lateral and yaw motions are small. It is shown that the vehicle system damping is inversely proportional to the longitudinal speed, and the gyroscopic forces are proportional to the product of trailer mass and longitudinal speed.