Title: An intelligent tyre based adaptive vehicle stability controller

Authors: Mustafa Ali Arat; Kanwar B. Singh; Saied Taheri

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, NSF I/UCRC Center for Tyre Research (CenTiRe), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24060, Virginia, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, NSF I/UCRC Center for Tyre Research (CenTiRe), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24060, Virginia, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, NSF I/UCRC Center for Tyre Research (CenTiRe), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24060, Virginia, USA

Abstract: Active safety systems have become an essential part of today"s vehicles. Although they have advanced in many aspects, there are still many areas where that they can be improved. Being able to obtain information about tyre-road conditions (e.g., slip ratio, tyre-slip angle, tyre forces, tyre-road friction) would be especially significant due to the key role tyres play in providing directional stability and control. Current systems are capable of obtaining such information by means of indirect methods (i.e., vehicle kinematic relations); however, they tend to fail in severe manoeuvres mainly because of the highly nonlinear characteristics of tyres. As a result, other methods are sought to directly obtain information about tyre-road interaction. This paper examines such a method where a tyre-attached sensor unit (intelligent tyre system) provides tyre slip information and the potential performance improvements offered by integrating this system with an adaptive vehicle stability controller.

Keywords: intelligent control; sliding mode observer; Lyapunov stability; integrated chassis control; vehicle stability; vehicle design; adaptive control; intelligent tyres; active safety systems; tyre sensors; slip ratio; tyre slip angle; tyre forces; tyre-road friction; vehicle safety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2014.060813

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2014 Vol.65 No.2/3, pp.118 - 143

Published online: 30 Oct 2014 *

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