Low-friction Road Surface Research Articles

Path Tracking Control with Constraint on Tire Slip Angles under Low-Friction Road Conditions

This paper presents a method to design a path tracking controller with a constraint on tire slip angles under low-friction road conditions. On a low-friction road surface, a lateral tire force is easily saturated and decreases as a tire slip angle increases by a large steering angle. Under this situation, a path tracking controller cannot achieve its maximum performance. To cope with this problem, it is necessary to limit tire slip angles to a value where the maximum lateral tire force is achieved. The most commonly used controllers for path tracking, linear quadratic regulator (LQR) and model predictive control (MPC), are adopted as a controller design methodology. The control inputs of LQR and MPC are front and rear steering angles and control yaw moment, which have been widely used for path tracking. The constraint derived from tire slip angles is imposed on the steering angles of LQR and MPC. To fully verify the performance of the path tracking controller with the constraint on tire slip angles, a simulation is conducted on vehicle simulation software. From the simulation results, it is shown that the path tracking controller with the constraint on tire slip angles presented in this paper is quite effective for path tracking on low-friction road surface.

Acceleration‐based wheel slip control realized with decentralised electric drivetrain systems

Traction control is one of the most important functions in vehicle drivetrain systems. When a vehicle is driven on a low-friction road surface, loss of traction force can cause the driven wheels to spin. This reduces vehicle acceleration performance and can even cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle. The high bandwidth of electric machine control in electric vehicles gives more possibilities to regulate driving torque on wheels and prevent wheel spin. An acceleration-based wheel slip control is designed and investigated. Compared to traditional slip-based traction control, the proposed method does not depend on the estimation of the vehicle speed and only relies on the driven wheel rotational acceleration. The control method is verified using the simulation of an electric vehicle with a decentralised electric drivetrain system. The vehicle and the electric drive are modelled in CarMaker and PLECS, respectively. The simulation results show that the proposed method is able to prevent the driven wheel from spinning when the vehicle is accelerated on an ice road. In addition, the control is fast enough and requires only half a second to reduce the wheel acceleration to a normal range.

TRACTION CONTROL OF VEHICLES USING SUPER TWISTING SLIDING MODE CONTROLLER AND A NOVEL TIRE FORCE ESTIMATION STRATEGY

Traction control is an active vehicle safety feature designed to help vehicles makeeffective use of all the traction available on the road when accelerating on lowfrictionroad surfaces. TCS becomes increasingly important to maintain the driver'scontrollability of the vehicle to enhance the driving experience under different roadconditions and avoid road crashes by correcting human errors. This paper utilizes theusage of PID, sliding mode and super twisting sliding mode controllers with anonlinear observer to obtain traction control for electric vehicles. The results of thesimulation illustrate the success of the controllers to operate the vehicle at the desiredwheel slip ratio. When a sudden change occurs, a super twisting controller yields thebest control performance comparing to the other systems. A novel unified structure isused to estimate tire forces by using a nonlinear observer. The independence of theestimates from the vehicle tire model is the reason for the novelty of this structure.

Wheel Slip Control for the Electric Vehicle With In-Wheel Motors: Variable Structure and Sliding Mode Methods

The article introduces four variants of the controller design for a continuous wheel slip control (WSC) system developed for the full electric vehicle equipped with individual in-wheel motors for each wheel. The study includes explanation of the WSC architecture, design of controllers, and their validation on road tests. The investigated WSC design variants use variable-structure proportional-integral, first-order sliding mode, integral sliding mode controllers as well as continuous twisting algorithm. To compare their functionality, a benchmark procedure is proposed based on several performance factors responsible for driving safety, driving comfort, and control quality. The controllers are compared by the results of validation tests done on low-friction road surface.

Torque Distribution Algorithm for an Independently Driven Electric Vehicle Using a Fuzzy Control Method: Driving Stability and Efficiency

In this paper, an integrated torque distribution strategy was developed to improve the stability and efficiency of the vehicle. To improve the stability of the low friction road surface, the vertical and lateral forces of the vehicle were estimated and the estimated forces were used to determine the driving torque limit. A turning stability index comprised of vehicle velocity and desired yaw rate was proposed to examine the driving stability of the vehicle while turning. The proposed index was used to subdivide turning situations and propose a torque distribution strategy, which can minimize deceleration of the vehicle while securing turning stability. The torque distribution strategy for increased driving stability and efficiency was used to create an integrated torque distribution (ITD) strategy. A vehicle stability index based on the slip rate and turning stability index was proposed to determine the overall driving stability of the vehicle, and the proposed index was used as a weight factor that determines the intervention of the control strategy for increased efficiency and driving stability. The simulation and actual vehicle test were carried out to verify the performance of the developed ITD. From these results, it can be verified that the proposed torque distribution strategy helps solve the poor handling performance problems of in-wheel electric vehicles.

Brake force sharing to improve lateral stability while regenerative braking in a turn

In electric and hybrid vehicles, regenerative braking is applied only at the driven wheels by the electric drive, whereas the non-driven wheels are not subjected to brake force during the pure regenerative braking mode. The application of pure regenerative brake may affect the vehicle’s lateral stability during a turn. The impact could be more severe when the pure regenerative brake is applied at the turn on the rear wheels (for a rear wheel drive vehicle) over a low friction road surface. As part of a solution to reduce this impact, a brake force sharing (BFS) strategy between regenerative and friction brake has been proposed in this paper, which improves the brake force distribution between front and rear wheels to ensure a stable turn. The vehicle model and the BFS strategy were developed, and the IPG Car Maker® software was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The simulation results on BFS strategy have been corroborated using experimental data collected from a test vehicle. Further, a closed loop control structure was developed for implementing the proposed BFS strategy in electric and hybrid vehicles.

Experimental investigations on continuous regenerative anti-lock braking system of full electric vehicle

Functions of anti-lock braking for full electric vehicles (EV) with individually controlled wheel drive can be realized through conventional brake system actuating friction brakes and regenerative brake system actuating electric motors. To analyze advantages and limitations of both variants of anti-lock braking systems (ABS), the presented study introduces results of experimental investigations obtained from proving ground tests of all-wheel drive EV. The brake performance is assessed for three different configurations: hydraulic ABS; regenerative ABS only on the front axle; blended hydraulic and regenerative ABS on the front axle and hydraulic ABS on the rear axle. The hydraulic ABS is based on a rule-based controller, and the continuous regenerative ABS uses the gain-scheduled proportional-integral direct slip control with feedforward and feedback control parts. The results of tests on low-friction road surface demonstrated that all the ABS configurations guarantee considerable reduction of the brake distance compared to the vehicle without ABS. In addition, braking manoeuvres with the regenerative ABS are characterized by accurate tracking of the reference wheel slip that results in less oscillatory time profile of the vehicle deceleration and, as consequence, in better driving comfort. The results of the presented experimental investigations can be used in the process of selection of ABS architecture for upcoming generations of full electric vehicles with individual wheel drive.

Variable Gear Ratio Control Using Vehicle Body Slip Angle

Vehicles with variable steering characteristics have long been studied and compared with those having typical fixed gear ratio steering, and the variable gear ratio properties are reported to have improved maneuverability and stability in high-speed lane changes and on slippery low-friction road surfaces. However, it is not clear how gear ratios should be set for individual vehicle characteristics. Therefore, the present study has investigated a variable steering gear system using body slip angle feedback for the purpose of improved maneuverability and stability in the critical cornering range and upwards, in excess of the critical limit, and into the countersteer range. The results of a driving simulator experiment show that the steering effect improves and maneuverability and stability increase in the critical cornering range and upwards, in excess of the critical limit, and into the countersteer range by applying linear-variable control to the steering ratio from a body slip angle of 5?. This result is seen both in double lane changes, such as in hazard avoidance, and in J-turns with long drifting. Moreover, it shows an improvement in drift controllability through prompt countersteering. Overall, the present system can enhance the driver’s hazard avoidance capability.

Effects of experience and electronic stability control on low friction collision avoidance in a truck driving simulator

Two experiments were carried out in a moving-base simulator, in which truck drivers of varying experience levels encountered a rear-end collision scenario on a low-friction road surface, with and without an electronic stability control (ESC) system. In the first experiment, the drivers experienced one instance of the rear-end scenario unexpectedly, and then several instances of a version of the scenario adapted for repeated collision avoidance. In the second experiment, the unexpected rear-end scenario concluded a stretch of driving otherwise unrelated to the study presented here. Across both experiments, novice drivers were found to collide more often than experienced drivers in the unexpected scenario. This result was found to be attributable mainly to longer steering reaction times of the novice drivers, possibly caused by lower expectancy for steering avoidance. The paradigm for repeated collision avoidance was able to reproduce the type of steering avoidance situation for which critical losses of control were observed in the unexpected scenario and, here, ESC was found to reliably reduce skidding and control loss. However, it remains unclear to what extent the results regarding ESC benefits in repeated avoidance are generalisable to unexpected situations. The approach of collecting data by appending one unexpected scenario to the end of an otherwise unrelated experiment was found useful, albeit with some caveats.

A Comparison of Two Control Methods for Vehicle Stability Control by Direct Yaw Moment

This paper proposes a comparison study of two vehicle stability control methods by direct yaw-moment control (DYC): a PID and a sliding controller. For the purpose of this study, control systems are based solely on vehicle side-slip angle state feedback and the lateral dynamics of the 2 DOF vehicle model are used to establish the desired response. Close-loop dynamics of the PID controller are determined with the pole placement method, and an anti-windup strategy is adopted to respond to the tire’s nonlinear characteristics. The comparison study was performed by computer simulations with a 14 DOF nonlinear vehicle model validated with experimental data. The controllers are evaluated for typical severe manoeuvres on low friction road surfaces. It is found that despite their fundamental differences, the control methods provide comparable performances for the cases studied.

A Sliding Mode Controller for Wheel Slip Ratio Control System

SUMMARY A sliding mode controller has been developed for a wheel slip ratio control system for commercial vehicles with sluggish braking actuators to replace conventional if-then rule-like ABS control laws. New techniques overcome the tendency of sliding mode controllers to chatter. Computer simulation (hardware-in-the-loop simulation) and actual vehicle tests verified the effectiveness of this method to suppress chattering and keep the wheel slip ratio in a desirable range during braking on low-friction road surfaces.