One design of ideal vehicle models in adaptive steering driver-vehicle systems

If the dynamics of combined vehicles such as tractor-semitrailer varies greatly, it may be very difficult for inexperienced drivers to achieve good handling stability. Moreover, once combined vehicles become unstable, it is very difficult for all drivers to stabilize vehicles. However, if the behavior of actual combined vehicles tracks the designed ideal vehicle models, the good handling property can be maintained even when the dynamics of actual combined vehicles varies largely. In this paper, to achieve good handling property even for large variation of vehicle dynamics, a design method of ideal vehicle model for driver-vehicle systems is proposed, then, an adaptive steering controller is developed so that the actual vehicle tracks the ideal vehicle model. In the adaptive steering driver-vehicle systems, the actual vehicle can track the ideal vehicle model even when the dynamics of actual combined vehicles varies large. Using this property of adaptive steering driver-vehicle systems, the ideal vehicle model can be designed easily for different characteristics of driver. Carrying out numerical simulations, it is shown that good handling performance can be achieved when the actual vehicle tracks the designed ideal vehicle model.