Nonlinear sliding mode control of an unmanned agricultural tractor in the presence of sliding and control saturation

•Nonlinear sliding-mode controller for path following.•Robust tracking under bounded wheel slips.•Allowance for constraints on the steering angle.•Rigorous proofs of convergence and stability.•Simulations and real world testing.

The paper considers the problem of automatic path tracking by autonomous farming vehicles subject to wheel slips, which are characteristic for agricultural applications. Two guidance laws are proposed to solve this problem, and both explicitly take into account the constraints on the steering angle and ensure tracking an arbitrarily curved path. The first law is implemented by the pure sliding-mode controller, whereas the second one combines the sliding mode approach with a smooth nonlinear control law and requests control chattering at the reduced amplitude as compared with the first law. Mathematically rigorous proofs of global convergence and robust stability of the proposed guidance laws are presented. In doing so, the slipping effects are treated as bounded uncertainties. Simulation results and real world experiments confirm the applicability and performance of the proposed guidance approach.