Integration of vehicle yaw stabilisation and rollover prevention through nonlinear hierarchical control allocation

Abstract

This work presents an approach to rollover prevention that takes advantage of the modular structure and optimisation properties of the control allocation paradigm. It eliminates the need for a stabilising roll controller by introducing rollover prevention as a constraint on the control allocation problem. The major advantage of this approach is the control authority margin that remains with a high-level controller even during interventions for rollover prevention. In this work, the high-level control is assigned to a yaw stabilising controller. It could be replaced by any other controller. The constraint for rollover prevention could be replaced by or extended to different control objectives. This work uses differential braking for actuation. The use of additional or different actuators is possible. The developed control algorithm is computationally efficient and suitable for low-cost automotive electronic control units. The predictive design of the rollover prevention constraint does not require any sensor equipment in addition to the yaw controller. The method is validated using an industrial multi-body vehicle simulation environment.

Keywords:

• active safety
• control allocation
• integrated vehicle dynamics control
• rollover

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Håvard F. Grip for insightful comments and Daimler AG for access to CASCaDE through STREP project CEmACS (Complex Embedded Automotive Control Systems) funded by the European Commission. This work is also sponsored by the Research Council of Norway through the Strategic University Program on Computational Methods in Nonlinear Motion Control.