Title: Robust velocity tracking control of general types of vehicles with arbitrary traction and braking configurations

Authors: Meihua Tai, Masayoshi Tomizuka

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA. ' Department Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Abstract: A longitudinal control model for general types of vehicle systems with arbitrary numbers of units is formulated. By introducing the concept of effective angular velocity, the model considers arbitrary configurations of an active set of traction wheels and an active set of braking wheels. It is assumed that inner-loop controllers are already designed for both traction actuators and braking actuators. The local closed-loop dynamics are approximated by linear first order systems with model uncertainty. Due to the discontinuity in the tyre longitudinal slip model, the vehicle longitudinal control model admits two different operating modes: traction mode and braking mode. For each mode, a robust backstepping controller is designed and the robustness is shown by simulation.

Keywords: braking control; longitudinal control; robust control; traction control; velocity tracking; simulation; vehicle control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2004.005321

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2004 Vol.36 No.1, pp.66 - 82

Published online: 21 Sep 2004 *

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