Search Results

The research of driver behavior characteristics has been a focus of vehicle handling and stability performance. With the driver preview effort, many different driver preview models of direction control have been proposed and the simulations of driver-vehicle-road closed-loop system made. But in the simulation, most of the conventional models have the same precondition that the road was simply described as a pre-given preview course. How to simulate the driver dynamically deciding vehicle preview course based on the real road circumstance is the key to the further research of the driver model. In this paper, a new driver direction control model is established, which is called the Optimal Preview Lateral Acceleration (OPLA) Model and divided into three sub-models: driver’s information identification model, driver’s fuzzy decision model of vehicle preview course and driver’s performance first-order correction model.

The behavior of driver course decision making is analyzed with the theory of system fuzzy decision making, and some factors that influence this behavior are studied also. Based on these, a fuzzy decision making model of driver dynamically determining vehicle preview course is given. This model can simulate the driver's control behavior of deciding the vehicle preview course in the process of driver handling the vehicle, based on the feasible region of front road. Taking advantage of fuzzy decision making theory's character, the model can describe many decision criteria such as driving safety, driving handiness and driving legality. The simulation results show that the model can be directly applied into the simulation of driver-vehicle-road closed-loop system and the research of intelligent vehicle.

A unified tire model with non-isotropy of friction and arbitrary contact pressure distribution is presented as a foundation to study the key features of a reasonable expression of tire shear force and alignment torque under combined slip conditions. The effects of contact pressure distribution on tire mechanical characteristics are analyzed. A unified semi-empirical tire model with convenience in dynamics simulation is recommended. For determining the model parameters, a series of simple expressions that satisfy the boundary conditions are proposed and a new global fitting method for tire data processing is employed. Based on the improved semi empirical model, the USPA software is developed. This software reduces the modeling time from the tire data to a practical tire model and allows various tire characteristics analyses. Some experimental validations are shown.

A full drive-by-wire electric vehicle, named Urban Future Electric Vehicle (UFEV) is developed, where the four wheels' traction and braking torques, four wheels' steering angles, and four active suspensions (in the future) are controlled independently. It is an ideal platform to realize the optimal vehicle dynamics, the marginal-stability and the energy-efficient control, it is also a platform for studying the advanced chassis control methods and their applications. A centralized control system of hierarchical structure for UFEV is proposed, which consist of Sensor Layer, Identification and Estimation Layer, Objective Control Layer, Forces and Motion Distribution Layer, Executive Layer. In the Identification and Estimation Layer, identification model is established by utilizing neural network algorithms to identify the driver characteristics. Vehicle state estimation and road identification of UFEV based on EKF and Fuzzy Logic Control methods is also conducted in this layer.

Electronically controlled air suspension (ECAS) systems have been widely used in commercial vehicles to improve the ride comfort and handling stability of vehicles, as it can adjust vehicle height according to the driving conditions and the driver's intent. In this paper, the vehicle height adjustment process of ECAS system is studied. A mathematical model of vehicle height adjustment is derived by combining vehicle dynamics theory and thermodynamics theory of variable mass system. Reasons lead to the problems of “over-charging”, “over-discharging” and oscillation during the process of height adjustment are analyzed. In order to solve these problems, a single neuron proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is proposed to realize the accurate control of vehicle height. By simulation and semi-physical rig test, the effectiveness and performance of the proposed control algorithm are verified.

The passive fault-tolerant approach for four-wheel independently driven and steered (4WID/4WIS) electric vehicles has been investigated in this study. An adaptive control based passive fault-tolerant controller is designed to improve vehicle safety, performance and maneuverability when an actuator fault happens. The proposed fault tolerant control method consists of the following three parts: 1) a fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) module that monitors vehicle driving condition, detects and diagnoses actuator failures with the inequality constraints; 2) a motion controller that computes the generalized forces/moments to track the desired vehicle motion using Model Predictive Control (MPC); 3) a reconfigurable control allocator that redistributes the generalized forces/moments to four wheels with equality constrained optimization.

This paper presents an adaptive observer-based approach for the combined state estimation and active fault detection and isolation (FDI) of the individual-wheel-drive (IWD) vehicles. A 3-DOF vehicle model coupled with the Highway Safety Research Institute (HSRI) tire model is established and used as the observation model. Based on this model, the dual unscented Kalman filter (DUKF) technique is employed for the observer design to give fusion results of the interdependent state and parameter variables, which undergo nonlinear transformations, with the minimum square errors. Effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is examined and validated through co-simulation between MATLAB/Simulink and CarSim. The results demonstrate that the DUKF-based observer effectively filters the sensor signals, accurately obtains the longitudinal and lateral velocities, explicitly isolates the faulty wheel(s) and accurately estimates the actual torque(s) even with the presence of noise.

This paper first presents an algorithm to detect tire blowout based on wheel speed sensor signals, which either reduces the cost for a TPMS or provides a backup in case it fails, and a tire blowout model considering different tire pressure is also built based on the UniTire model. The vehicle dynamic model uses commercial software CarSim. After detecting tire blowout, the active braking control, based on a 2DOF reference model, determines an optimal correcting yaw moment and the braking forces that slow down and stop the vehicle, based on a linear quadratic regulator. Then the braking force commands are further translated into target pressure command for each wheel cylinder to ensure the target braking forces are generated. Some simulations are conducted to verify the active control strategy.

Pneumatic Electric Braking System (EBS) is getting widely spread for commercial vehicles. Pneumatic EBS improves the problem of slow response of traditional pneumatic braking system by implementing brake-by-wire. However, the time-delay response and hysteresis of some electro-pneumatic components and some other issues decrease the response and control accuracy of the pneumatic EBS.

Nowadays active collision avoidance has become a major focus of research, and a variety of detection and tracking methods of obstacles in front of host vehicle have been applied to it. In this paper, laser radars are chosen as sensors to obtain relevant information, after which an algorithm used to detect and track vehicles in front is provided. The algorithm determines radar's ROI (Region of Interest), then uses a laser radar to scan the 2D space so as to obtain the information of the position and the distance of the targets which could be determined as obstacles. The information obtained will be filtered and then be transformed into cartesian coordinates, after that the coordinate point will be clustered so that the profile of the targets can be determined. A threshold will be set to judge whether the targets are obstacles or not. Last Kalman filter will be used for target tracking. To verify the presented algorithm, related experiments have been designed and carried out.

To address the current situation of the limited driver-vehicle cooperative steering actuation structure, this paper proposes a feasible driver-vehicle shared steering control actuation architecture based on the differential steering. Firstly, a shared steering execution architecture is established, which contains traditional steering system controlled by human driver and differential steering system acting as the automatic execution system. In this paper, a specific driver-vehicle shared control architecture is established with the front-wheel hub motor-based differential steering system and a single-view angle based human driver model. Then, an upper-level sliding mode controller for path tracking is developed and implemented as the automatic steering system, and the driver-vehicle shared control is achieved by the proposed non-cooperative game model.

A closed-loop comprehensive evaluation and a test method for vehicle handling and stability have been studied by using development driving simulator. Simulator test scheme has been designed and carried out with 14 vehicle configurations, and subjective evaluation has been made for easy handling of vehicle by drivers. A closed-loop comprehensive evaluation index has been put forward considering the factors affecting vehicle handling and stability. The reliability of the index has been validated by driver's subjective evaluation. A driver/vehicle/ road closed-loop system model has been established, and the theoretical predictive evaluation has been carried out with 14 vehicle configurations. Simulation showed that similar result for both theoretical predictive evaluation and subjective evaluation.

As a new form of electric vehicle, Four-wheel-independent electric vehicle with X-By-Wire (XBW) inherits all the advantages of in-wheel motor drive electric vehicles. The vehicle steering system is liberated from traditional mechanical steering mechanism and forms an advanced vehicle with all- wheel independent driving, braking and steering. Compared with conventional vehicles, it has more controllable degrees of freedom. The design of the integrated vehicle dynamics control systems helps to achieve the steering, driving and braking coordinated control and improves the vehicle's handling stability. In order to solve the problem of lacking of vehicle state information in the integrated control, some methods are used to estimate the vehicle state of four-wheel-independent electric vehicles with XBW. In order to improve the estimation accuracy, unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is used to estimate the vehicle state variables in this paper.

Driver steering feature clustering aims to understand driver behavior and the decision-making process through the analysis of driver steering data. It seeks to comprehend various steering characteristics exhibited by drivers, providing valuable insights into road safety, driver assistance systems, and traffic management. The primary objective of this study is to thoroughly explore the practical applications of various clustering algorithms in processing driver steering data and to compare their performance and applicability. In this paper, principal component analysis was employed to reduce the dimension of the selected steering feature parameters. Subsequently, K-means, fuzzy C-means, the density-based spatial clustering algorithm, and other algorithms were used for clustering analysis, and finally, the Calinski-Harabasz index was employed to evaluate the clustering results. Furthermore, the driver steering features were categorized into lateral and longitudinal categories.

This study investigates the fundamental stiffness and damping properties of a self-damped pneumatic suspension system, based on both the experimental and analytical analyses. The pneumatic suspension system consists of a pneumatic cylinder and an accumulator that are connected by an orifice, where damping is realized by the gas flow resistance through the orifice. The nonlinear suspension system model is derived and also linearized for facilitating the properties characterization. An experimental setup is also developed for validating both the formulated nonlinear and linearized models. The comparisons between the measured data and simulation results demonstrate the validity of the models under the operating conditions considered. Two suspension property measures, namely equivalent stiffness coefficient and loss factor, are further formulated.

Magneto-rheological fluid squeeze mode investigations at CVeSS have shown that MR fluids show large force capabilities in squeeze mode. A novel MR squeeze mount was designed and built at CVeSS, and a dynamic mathematical model was developed, which considered the inertial effect and was validated by the test data. A variant engine mount that will be used for isolating vibration, based on the MR squeeze mode is proposed in the paper. The mathematical governing equations of the mount are derived to account for its operation with MR squeeze mode. The design method of a robust H✓ controller is addressed for the squeeze mount subject to parameter uncertainties in the damping and stiffness. The controller parameter can be derived from the solution of bilinear matrix inequalities (BMIs). The displacement transmissibility is constrained to be no more than 1.05 with this robust H✓ controller. The MR squeeze mount has a very large range of force used to isolate the vibration.

Four-wheel-drive electric vehicles (4WD Evs) utilize in-wheel electric motors and Electro-Hydraulic Braking system (EHB). Then, all wheels torque can be controlled independently, and the braking pressure can be controlled more accurately and more fast than conventional braking system. Because of these advantages, 4WD Evs have potential applications in control engineering. In this paper, the in-wheel electric motors and EHB are applied as actuators in the vehicle stability control system. Based on the Direct Yaw-moment Control (DYC), the optimized wheel force distribution is given, and the coordination control of the hydraulic braking and the motor braking torque is considered. Then the EHB hardware-in-the-loop test bench is established in order to verify the effectiveness of the vehicle stability control algorithm through experiments.

Pressure following control is the basic function of Electro-Hydraulic Braking system (EHB), which is also the key technology of stability control system and regenerative braking system for hybrid and electric vehicles. Experimental research is an important method for the control and application of EHB. This paper describes a method to test and control the EHB system through experiment on the Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test bench and wheel motor electric vehicle. First, the HIL test bench was established, in which the EHB was tested, including the characteristics of solenoid valves and motor. Then the wheel cylinder pressure was controlled to follow the specific signal input and the master cylinder pressure. Based on this, EHB and the pressure following control method were applied to the wheel motor electric vehicle. The results show that the braking pressure can follow the driver's braking intention to realize the conventional braking function of electric vehicles.

With the development of the advanced driver assistance system and autonomous vehicle techniques, a precise description of the driver’s steering behavior with mathematical models has attracted a great attention. However, the driver’s steering maneuver demonstrates the stochastic characteristic due to a series of complex and uncertain factors, such as the weather, road, and driver’s physiological and psychological limits, generating negative effects on the performance of the vehicle or the driver assistance system. Hence, this paper explores the stochastic characteristic of driver’s steering behavior and a novel steering controller considering this stochastic characteristic is proposed based on stochastic model predictive control (SMPC). Firstly, a search algorithm is derived to describe the driver’s road preview behavior.

A long vehicle is more difficult to drive than a short one, but the mechanism of this phenomenon is still ambiguous. This paper will devote main effort to elaborate this phenomenon based on the theory of preview-follower driver model. Drivers always hope that the vehicle center can travel according to a predetermined trajectory. However, there is often a deviation between the vehicle center predicted by the driver and the actual center. As for this phenomenon, a conception of driver preview eccentricity is proposed. In order to analyze the influence of the proposed conception on vehicle driving track, a multi-axle steering vehicle model is built and some basic expressions of important parameters are deduced from this model firstly. Then, the developmental driver model with the factor of preview eccentricity based on preview-follower theory is established in the state of low velocity quasi-static. Subsequently, this model for long vehicles is extended to a dynamic driver model.