Self-powered towing servomechanism

An obedient self-powered and self-controlling slave vehicle for interposition between a leading master vehicle and a towed trailer unit;

• said slave vehicle having a body and independent suspension means for two independently driven ground engaging wheels, said ground engaging wheels each having an axis of rotation lying in a vertical plane common to both axes and which extends transversely of said slave vehicle;
• individual suspension means for said respective ground-engaging wheels permitting oscillations of said respective axes of said respective ground wheels in said substantially vertical plane to the substantial exclusion of movements of said axes of said respective ground wheels in any other direction;
• a power supply mounted on said slave vehicle;
• controllable variable torque transmitting means interposed in independent drive means from said power supply to said respective ground engaging wheels;
• control means carried by said slave vehicle and controlling said variable torque transmitting means, said control means being operatively associated with actuator means and attached to said master vehicle by attachment means and actuated by said actuator means for it to follow the omnidirectional movement of said actuator means, and thus movements of said actuator means relative to a reference point on said slave vehicle, to provide selective steering, acceleration and braking of said slave vehicle duplicating movements of said master vehicle in the absence of a mechanical interconnection between said vehicles;
• and
• pivot means affixed to said slave vehicle body, said pivot means including first and second members providing for relative rotation between said members, one of said members being rigidly and immovably affixed to said slave vehicle body, the other of said members being rigidly attachable to said towed trailer at a leading end of said trailer, said trailer having ground engaging wheels at a trailing end of said trailer, said first and second members being rotatable relative to each other about an axis intersecting a centroid of said respective axes of rotation of said respective ground engaging wheels of said slave vehicle.