Improvement in the rollover stability of a liquid-carrying articulated vehicle via a new robust controller

Abstract

In this paper, in order to improve the roll stability of an articulated vehicle carrying a liquid, an active roll control system is utilized by employing two different control methods. First, a 16-degree-of-freedom non-linear dynamic model of an articulated vehicle is developed. Next, the dynamic interaction of the liquid cargo with the vehicle is investigated by integrating a quasi-dynamic liquid sloshing model with a tractor–semitrailer model. Initially, to improve the lateral dynamic stability of the vehicle, an active roll control system is developed using classical integral sliding-mode control. The active anti-roll bar is employed as an actuator to generate the roll moment. Next, in order to verify the classical sliding-mode control performance and to eliminate its chattering, the backstepping method and the sliding-mode control method are combined. Subsequently, backstepping sliding-mode control as a new robust control is implemented. Moreover, in order to prevent both yaw instability and jackknifing, an active steering control system is designed on the basis of a simplified three-degree-of-freedom dynamic model of an articulated vehicle carrying a liquid. In the introduced system, the yaw rate of the tractor, the lateral velocity of the tractor and the articulation angle are considered as the three state variables which are targeted in order to track their desired values. The simulation results show that the combined proposed roll control system is more successful in achieving target control and reducing the lateral load transfer ratio than is classical sliding-mode control. A more detailed investigation confirms that the designed active steering system improves both the lateral stability of the vehicle and its handling, in particular during a severe lane-change manoeuvre in which considerable instability occurs.