Title: Robust variable structure control for stabilisation of articulated steer vehicles by torque vectoring

Authors: N.L. Azad, J. McPhee, A. Khajepour

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada. ' Motion Research Group, Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada. ' Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada

Abstract: In this work, a Variable Structure Control (VSC) system is developed to remove the instability of an articulated steer vehicle during the snaking mode. First, by using a linearised model of the vehicle, the equations of motion are derived in the state-space form. The uncertainties in the tyre-road contact parameters introduce some unknown and time-varying but bounded terms to these equations. This will be a basis for designing a robust VSC system to stabilise the vehicle during the snaking by a torque vectoring device. The robustness of the resulting controller is examined for different driving conditions in terms of the road surface, forward speed and vehicle parameters, based on the linearised model. The control system is also incorporated into a virtual prototype of the vehicle in ADAMS, and its operation is investigated. The results from the linear model analysis and simulations in ADAMS show that the controller can eliminate the instability effectively.

Keywords: articulated steer vehicles; variable structure control; VSC; snaking mode; linear time-varying systems; uncertain tyre parameters; virtual prototypes; stabilisation; robust control; torque vectoring; tyre-road contact; vehicle instability; heavy vehicles.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.2007.015706

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 2007 Vol.14 No.4, pp.331 - 354

Published online: 09 Nov 2007 *

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