The first part of the study is centered on control design and analysis for nonlinear systems which can be converted to chained-form systems. Solutions to various control problems (open-lopp steering, partial or complete state feedback stabilization) are either recalled, generalized or developped by extending an approach followed by the author in previous papers on mobile robot control. In particular, globally stabilizing time-varying feedbacks are derived and a discussion of their convergence properties is provided. Application to the control of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots is described in the second part of the study, by considering the case of a car pulling trailers. This application encompasses simpler unicycle-type and car-like vehicles without trailers. Finally it is shown how slightly modified chained systems can be introduced to derive controls with a broader domain of stability.