Velocity scheduled driver assisted control

Abstract

This paper investigates the effectiveness of velocity-scheduled Driver Assisted Control (DAC) to control the yaw rate of a front wheel drive, four-wheel steer passenger vehicle. The goal of this research is to be able to impart new handling characteristics to a vehicle through the entire range of operational longitudinal velocities. The DAC uses vehicle yaw rate as input and the rear steering angle as output, thus allowing the driver to maintain a direct line of vehicle control via the front wheels for safety reasons. Multiple DAC controllers are designed for discrete longitudinal velocities within the vehicle's operating range. A transition methodology was then implemented to switch between DAC controllers as the longitudinal velocity changes. Finally, the controller was tested experimentally on a scaled vehicle testbed.