Design on differential steering control system of crawler tractor

To address problems of response lag, large energy consumption, and insufficient handling accuracy in traditional differential steering method of crawler tractor, a state feedback-based differential steering control system has been proposed．Firstly, principles of crawler tractor steering mechanism have been analyzed．Secondly, according to kinematics model of crawler tractor, differential steering control method based on pulse width modulation has been designed．Precise adjustment of left and right track drive force has been achieved by establishing state space model of system and adopting state feedback control strategy．Thirdly, a STM32F4 single chip microcomputer has been applied as core to carry out linear path planning and steering contro．Finally, field tests were carried out for validation．Results showed that at an operating speed of 3 km/h, average path deviation of differential steering method was 2.2 cm, which was better than that of traditional unilateral braking method．Furthermore, standard deviation of deviation was reduced by about 1.0 cm, indicating a significant improvement in path tracking accuracy．A theoretical basis and technical support for achieving high-precision autonomous steering control of crawler tractor in complex farmland environment have been provided．