Real-Time Simulations for Design of Active Safety Systems for Multi-Trailer Articulated Heavy Vehicles

Abstract

This paper introduces a design of active trailer steering system (ATS) for multi-trailer articulated vehicles (MTAHVs) using driver-software-in-the-loop (DSIL) real-time simulations. A yaw-plane MTAHV model is developed to derive an ATS controller. Then, the real-time versions of the controller and MTAHV models are constructed in LabVIEW and TruckSim, respecitvely. With the integration of these models, the real-time simulations are conducted with a vehicle simulator. The simulations indicate that the controller can effectively improve the MTAHV’s directional performance under the specified test maneuvers.