Sliding mode-based lateral vehicle dynamics control using tyre force measurements

Abstract

In this work, a lateral vehicle dynamics control based on tyre force measurements is proposed. Most of the lateral vehicle dynamics control schemes are based on yaw rate whereas tyre forces are the most important variables in vehicle dynamics as tyres are the only contact points between the vehicle and road. In the proposed method, active front steering is employed to uniformly distribute the required lateral force among the front left and right tyres. The force distribution is quantified through the tyre utilisation coefficients. In order to address the nonlinearities and uncertainties of the vehicle model, a gain scheduling sliding-mode control technique is used. In addition to stabilising the lateral dynamics, the proposed controller is able to maintain maximum lateral acceleration. The proposed method is tested and validated on a multi-body vehicle simulator.

Keywords:

• lateral vehicle dynamics control
• tyre utilisation coefficient
• sliding surface
• active frontsteering
• sine with dwell

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The extreme case is represented by a vehicle that is already accelerating at the limit of the longitudinal force (). If a steering input that translates into a desired , according to Equation (16(12) ), is given in this condition, the lateral force reference generation in Equations (18(14) )–(19(15) ) would yield 0 and the vehicle would not steer. This could be arguable as the vehicle would not be able to steer and avoid an obstacle; but note that this is a limitation of the actuation (we are assuming to only have automatic control of steering) and not of the control algorithm. It is in fact preferable not to steer and let the driver reduce the throttle rather than letting the driver steer but completely lose control of the vehicle. For more details on how to address the above issue if active braking is available, see [10].