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The problem of vehicle stability in emergency maneuvers has attracted a lot of research effort recently. Perhaps the most effective contributions made in this area were devoted to the control of vehicle yaw rate either by active steering or differential braking control systems. Each control technique has its own limitations that make it ineffective in some particular situations. This paper introduces a combined steering and braking control strategy using a fuzzy logic inference system. The proposed controller uses the estimated coefficient of friction (μ) to organize the combined control action. Computer simulation using a comprehensive vehicle model is used to illustrate the strengths and limitations of various control strategies.

A series of examples, involving normal mode representations of a flexible railcar and various suspension models, is presented illustrating the use of bond graph techniques for assembling a structural dynamic system model from component models. Bond graph techniques are related to other methods for achieving the same goal, and the unique features of bond graph techniques are pointed out. Not only does the bond graph provide a graphical representation of the organized system equations, but also it allows the use of ENPORT programs for automating the process of manipulating the component relations into an explicit-state space format suitable for simulation or analysis. Nonlinear and active systems which interact with structural dynamic components are readily handled using bond graph techniques.