Coordinated and Reconfigurable Vehicle Dynamics Control

A coordinated reconfigurable vehicle dynamics control (CRVDC) system is achieved by high-level control of generalized forces/moment, distributed to the slip and slip angle of each tire by an innovative control allocation (CA) scheme. Utilizing control of individual tire slip and slip angles helps resolve the inherent tire force nonlinear constraints that otherwise may make the system more complex and computationally expensive. This in turn enables a real-time adaptable, computationally efficient accelerated fixed-point (AFP) method to improve the CA convergence rate when actuation saturates. Evaluation of the overall system is accomplished by simulation testing with a full-vehicle CarSim model under various adverse driving conditions, including scenarios where vehicle actuator failures occur. Comparison with several other vehicle control system approaches shows how the system operational envelope for CRVDC is significantly expanded in terms of vehicle global trajectory and planar motion responses.