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In this paper, a gain-scheduling optimal control approach is proposed to enhance yaw stability of articulated commercial vehicles through active braking of the proper wheel(s). For this purpose, an optimal feedback control is used to design a family of yaw moment controllers considering a broad range of vehicle velocities. The yaw moment controller is designed such that the instantaneous tractor yaw rate and articulation angle responses are forced to track the target values at each specific vehicle velocity. A gain scheduling mechanism is subsequently constructed via interpolations among the controllers. Furthermore, yaw moments derived from the proposed controller are realized by braking torque distribution among the appropriate wheels. The effectiveness of the proposed yaw stability control scheme is evaluated through software-in-the-loop (SIL) co-simulations involving Matlab/Simulink and TruckSim under lane change maneuvers.

Vehicle jackknifing is generally associated with the loss of yaw stability, and is one of the most common cause of serious traffic accidents involving tractor-semitrailer combinations. In this paper, an active braking control strategy is proposed for jackknifing prevention of a tractor-semitrailer combination on a low friction road. The proposed control strategy is realized via upper-level and lower-level control structures considering braking of both the units. In the upper-level control, the required corrective yaw moments for tractor and semitrailer are generated using a PID controller aiming to reduce errors between the actual yaw rates of tractor-semitrailer and the target yaw rates deduced from a reference model. The corrective yaw moments are achieved through brake torque distribution among the tractor and semitrailer axle wheels in the lower-level control.