Nonlinear model predictive control of blowout tire vehicles and its map-based implementation

A blowout is a rapid loss of inflation pressure of a pneumatic tire. In order to reduce the fatal damage of tire blowout during vehicle operation, a differential flatness based 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) vehicle dynamics model with a deflated tire is established. The model predictive controller designed based on this method can guarantee that the vehicle after a tire blowout can drive safely until it comes to a complete stop. Due to the heavily online computational burden, it is actually difficult to implement nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) scheme in the quick-response control system. In this paper, a novel control strategy is proposed to solve this problem and applied to the control of vehicles after a tire blowout. The involved optimization problem of NMPC is solved off-line in the operating points which then are recorded into a control map. Simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.