Estimation and Analysis of Vehicle Lateral Stability Region With Both Front and Rear Wheel Steering

Abstract

In this paper, a novel vehicle lateral stability region estimation method considering both front and rear wheel steering is introduced. Vehicle lateral stability regions are estimated by a local linearization method, which guarantees both vehicle local stability and handling stability. The impacts of front and rear wheel steering angles on stability region estimations are formulated and discussed. To quantitatively explain the shifting feature of stability regions under different front/rear steering angles, an explicit analysis about how the equilibrium points and the geometric centers of stability regions change with respect to different steering angles is formulated. The obtained relationship enables the estimation of stability regions in real time for varying front/rear steering angles. The additional rear wheel steering helps to maintain vehicle states stay within estimated stability regions. To show the effectiveness of the proposed real-time stability region estimation method and stability analysis, a Simulink and CarSim® co-simulation is applied to verify that vehicle states are covered within varying stability regions for a single lane change maneuver.