A hybrid control scheme is proposed for the stabilization of
backward driving along simple paths for a miniature vehicle
composed of a truck and a two-axle trailer. When reversing, the
truck and trailer can be modelled as an unstable nonlinear system
with state and input saturations. Due to these constraints, it is impossible to globally stabilize the system with standard smooth
control techniques, since some initial states necessarily lead to
that the so called jack-knife locks between the truck and the
trailer. The proposed hybrid control method, which combines
backward and forward motions, provide a global attractor to the
desired reference trajectory. The scheme has been implemented and
successfully evaluated on a radio-controlled vehicle. Results from
experimental trials are reported.