Abstract

This thesis investigates the principle of integration of vehicle dynamics control systems by proposing a novel control architecture to integrate the brake-based electronic stability control (ESC), active front steering (AFS), normal suspension force control (NFC) and variable torque distribution (VTD).
A nonlinear 14 degree of freedom passive vehicle dynamics model was developed in Matlab/Simulink and validated against commercially available vehicle dynamics software CarSim. Dynamics of the four active vehicle control systems were developed. Fuzzy logic and PID control strategies were employed considering their robustness and effectiveness in controlling nonlinear systems. Effectiveness of active systems in extending the vehicle operating range against the passive ones was investigated.
From the research, it was observed that AFS is effective in improving the stability at lower lateral acceleration (latac) region with less interference to the longitudinal vehicle dynamics. But its ability diminishes at higher latac regions due to tyre lateral force saturation. Both ESC and VTD are found to be effective in stabilising the vehicle over the entire operating region. But the intrusive nature of ESC promotes VTD as a preferred stability control mechanism at the medium latac range. But ESC stands out in improving stability at limits where safety is of paramount importance. NFC is observed to improve the ability to generate the tyre forces across the entire operating range.
Based on this analysis, a novel rule based integrated chassis control (ICC) strategy is proposed. It uses a latac based stability criterion to assign the authority to control the stability and ensures the smooth transition of the control authority amongst the three systems, AFS, VTD and ESC respectively. The ICC also optimises the utilisation of NFC to improve the vehicle handling performance further, across the entire operating regions. The results of the simulation are found to prove that the integrated control strategy improves vehicle stability across the entire vehicle operating region.