摘要：AbstractBecause of the finite reaction time of human drivers, the towing process of a broken-down vehicle can often lead to unwanted oscillations. The paper presents a mechanical model of vehicle towing, where the driver of the first car tries to keep a constant velocity, while the driver of the towed vehicle uses the brakes to maintain a desired force in the towing bar; the control of both drivers is subjected to time delay. Stability charts are constructed in the plane of the control parameters showing that the stable region disappears and reappears periodically as the time delay increases.
