Attitude Stabilization Control Methods for a Tracked Agricultural Transport Platform in Hilly and Mountainous Terrain Based on Adaptive Kalman Filtering

This study proposes an attitude stabilization method based on an improved adaptive Kalman filter (AKF). The aim is to address attitude fluctuations and rollover risks in rail-based agricultural transport platforms on hilly terrain caused by slope changes, load shifts and vibrations. A dynamic model integrating the load distribution and center-of-mass migration was established, and an adaptive noise covariance mechanism was used to precisely estimate the roll and pitch angles in real time. A dual-channel proportional–integral–derivative controller was designed for automatic leveling, and a rollover risk index (RRI) was adopted for safety evaluation. Simulations revealed the ability of the improved AKF to decrease the roll estimation (RMSE) from 1.2684° to 0.8670° and the stabilization time from 0.6250 to 0.3830 s for the roll and from 0.6930 to 0.4110 s for the pitch. Under 10–30° slope disturbances, the average RRI decreased from 0.1861 to 0.1506. Field tests further demonstrated decreases in the peak roll and pitch angles from 4.8° and 4.1° to 3.1° and 2.7°, respectively, and a decrease in the average RRI from 0.203 to 0.169. The improvements in estimation accuracy, leveling performance, and operational safety under complex disturbances indicate the strong engineering potential of the proposed method.