Safety Filter Design for Articulated Frame Steering Vehicles In the Presence of Actuator Dynamics Using High-Order Control Barrier Functions

Abstract

Articulated Frame Steering (AFS) vehicles are widely used in heavy-duty industries, where they often operate near operators and laborers. Therefore, designing safe controllers for AFS vehicles is essential. In this paper, we develop a Quadratic Program (QP)-based safety filter that ensures feasibility for AFS vehicles with affine actuator dynamics. To achieve this, we first derive the general equations of motion for AFS vehicles, incorporating affine actuator dynamics. We then introduce a novel High-Order Control Barrier Function (HOCBF) candidate with equal relative degrees for both system controls. Finally, we design a Parametric Adaptive HOCBF (PACBF) and an always-feasible, QP-based safety filter. Numerical simulations of AFS vehicle kinematics demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.