Motion Planning and Path Following for Autonomous Navigation and Reversing of a Full-Scale Mining Truck and Trailer System

Mining area operations involving heavy-duty trucks often require precise parking in loading and unloading areas and navigation between these locations. This paper presents a planning and control framework specifically designed for maneuvering full-scale truck and trailer combinations in such environments. The study introduces an integrated system that combines navigation and parking planning algorithms to enhance the accuracy of final positioning. For navigation between two parking areas, a map-based Frenet frame planner is coupled with a Lombard variant of the Pure Pursuit tracker. For parking scenarios, the CL-RRT algorithm is adapted for use with truck-trailer combinations. Reversing maneuvers are managed using LQ control guided by Pure Pursuit. The system’s effectiveness was rigorously tested both on a closed course and in an off-road real mining area with a full-scale truck-trailer combination. The results from physical testing demonstrate that the proposed solutions can effectively plan and execute maneuvers, avoiding collisions while achieving stabilized tracking with low errors and precise final positioning.