Design of a vehicle lateral stability control system via a fuzzy logic control approach

Abstract

This paper proposes a control system based on fuzzy logic control theory to improve the vehicle handling and lateral stability by combined control of four-wheel steering and active braking. A fuzzy logic controller, with the yaw rate error and side-slip angle error as inputs and with the corrective yaw moment and rear steering angle as outputs, is developed to follow the desired yaw rate and side-slip angle generated by the reference model. A side-slip angle estimator based on the dynamic vehicle model and kinematic vehicle model is designed. To generate the corrective yaw moment, the brake torque is properly distributed to the effective wheel. The proposed control system is evaluated under various driving conditions, e.g. lane change manoeuvre and step steer manoeuvre. Simulation results and analysis have verified the effectiveness of the proposed control system. The vehicle handling and lateral stability are improved satisfactorily compared with individual control.