Active rack control of steer-by-wire systems for vehicle lateral stability

Abstract

This paper describes a stability control strategy based on a steer-by-wire system to improve the lateral stability and manoeuvrability of vehicles by integrating individual chassis control modules, such as electronic stability control (ESC) and active front steering (AFS). Because of the uncertainty of cornering stiffness, an adaptive sliding-mode control is implemented without using the cornering stiffness value. An adaptive parameter is used instead of the cornering stiffness in the slip angle estimation and the lateral stability control. An unscented Kalman filter is used to estimate the slip angle and adaptive sliding mode control is used in lateral stability control. An equivalent desired command is calculated in lateral stability control. An integrated AFS and four individual wheel-braking controls were utilised to achieve an optimal distribution of longitudinal and lateral tyre forces, aiming to attain the desired command for lateral stability. Optimal coordination of the control authority for the AFS and the ESC has been chosen to minimise the force of each tyre. Computer simulations and vehicle tests of a closed-loop driver–vehicle–controller system subjected to a double-lane change have been carried out to verify that the proposed control strategy works.