Search Results

In this work, a theoretical investigation of four-wheel steering (or shortly 4WS) system is presented using a linear model to simulate vehicle handling characteristics. This model incorporates driver';s operation. The simulation concerns the vehicle in straight running while the vehicle is subjected to side wind excitation. Limitations of measurements in practice are supporting the implementation of limited state feedback systems instead of those which are based on full state feedback information. Therefore, the well known Kalman filter algorithm is used in this work to design a practical 4WS control strategy. This practical system uses only feedback signals of lateral acceleration and front steering angle to obtain the control law. Measurement noise is taken into account and results are generated to obtain the step response of the outputs of interest.

This work presents a theoretical study on a linear 3-DOF vehicle handling model which, incorporates driver's operation and vehicle suspension derivatives. The model is constructed to investigate the performance of vehicles with conventional front steering system and vehicles with actively controlled front wheel steering system as well. The control strategy of the Active Front Steering (AFS) control is based on the optimal control theory using LQR technique. The vehicle model excitation is a simulation of the aerodynamic forces and moments generated on a passenger car when overtaking a truck. Results are showing a comparison between the performance of the vehicle with conventional steering system and the vehicle with Active Front Steering (AFS) system. A significant improvement with the AFS optimal system is achieved in the vehicle response especially for lateral deviation error.