Title: Sliding-mode-based disturbance observer approaches for vehicle steering control

Authors: Murat Demirci; Metin Gokasan

Addresses: Energy Institute, TUBITAK Marmara Research Center, P.O. Box 21, TR-41470, Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey ' Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Control Engineering Department, Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Maslak, Istanbul TR-34469, Turkey

Abstract: Disturbance observer estimates a disturbance on the control input channel by using past measurements instead of estimating the disturbance itself and is a very powerful method to improve vehicle motion dynamics. This study proposes two new disturbance observer approaches for vehicle steering control, which are based on Sliding Mode Control (SMC) theory. The controllers estimate the equivalent input extended-disturbance in the control input channel. The extended-disturbance includes modelling and parameter uncertainties of the vehicle in addition to external yaw disturbances caused by side wind, μ-split braking, etc., The steering controllers have been tested on a Fiat Doblo Van modelled in CarSim environment. The sliding-mode-based disturbance observer approaches developed in this work are the first known applications to vehicle steering control. The performances of the proposed vehicle steering control systems have been compared with the performances of the Inverse-Model-based Disturbance Observer (IMDO) approach, which is a well-known disturbance observer method for motion control.

Keywords: disturbance observer; steering control; SMC; sliding mode control; vehicle dynamics; vehicle control; vehicle stability; modelling uncertainties; parameter uncertainties; external yaw disturbances.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2013.052703

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2013 Vol.62 No.2/3/4, pp.254 - 273

Received: 22 Feb 2011
Accepted: 19 Jun 2011
Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

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