Integrated estimation of vehicle states, tire forces, and tire-road friction coefficients

Information about the vehicle states (e.g. the sideslip angle and the longitudinal velocity), tire forces, and tire-road friction coefficients is crucial for advanced vehicular active safety systems. In particular, the latest high-performance control system based on optimally distributing and controlling all tire forces requires feedback of the tire forces and the tire-road friction coefficient of each individual tire. Therefore, estimating all or parts of the vehicle/tire/road states from available sensor measurements in production vehicles has long been an active research topic in both academia and industry. Despite recent advances in automotive estimation technologies, it remains an open question on identifying the tire-road friction coefficient of each individual tire. This paper proposes an integrated estimation system that provides accurate estimates of the vehicle/tire/road states from available sensor measurements. More importantly, the tire-road friction coefficient of each tire can be separately estimated. The performance of the proposed estimation system is verified by simulations based on a complex nonlinear vehicle/ tire model.