Electric and Electronic Systems for Vehicles

Paolo S. Crovetti

Antilock Braking System (ABS) and

Electronic Stability Program (ESP)

Electronic control systems for vehicle stability and safety enhancement are presented in the
following. In particular, an outline of the ABS and of the ESP as electronic control systems with
their sensors and actuators will be given.

Antilock Braking System (ABS)

The antilock-braking-system (ABS) is one of the most popular electronic systems for active safety
enhancement. Such a system has been developed to assist a driver in stopping a vehicle in a
minimum space, avoiding collisions. In vehicles which are not equipped with the ABS, a sudden
complete depression of the brake pedal by the driver under panic conditions (i.e. when a collision
might occur), very often induces wheel locking. This is particularly likely to occur under critical
braking condition (e.g. high initial speed, wet or icy roads,. . . ). When the wheels are locked, the
braking force due to friction on the road significantly decreases, the time and the space required to
stop the vehicle increase and the driver loses the directional control of the vehicle. As a consequence,
wheel locking increase the probability that a collision occurs and it should be avoided. The ABS
modulates the brake line pressure in order to avoid wheel locking and to stop a vehicle in a minimum
space.

1.1

Braking Dynamics

With reference to Fig.1, under constant vehicle speed conditions, the wheels are rolling on the road
without slipping, therefore, the vehicle speed, v, is related to the angular speed of the wheels as
v = r

(1)

where r is the radius of the wheels. Immediately after braking, a braking torque TB is applied to
the wheels and their angular speed start decreasing. In contrast, the vehicle mass is not immediately affected by braking and the vehicle speed remains almost constant because of inertia. As a
consequence, the motion of the wheels on the road is no longer pure rolling and a slip component
s (i.e. a relative motion of the wheel with respect to the road surface) arises:
s=

v r
.
v
1

(2)

Figure 1: Braking Dynamics.

If a sudden heavy braking is performed, the wheel angular speed rapidly drops to 0, slip is
100% and wheel locking occurs. In this condition, the time and the space that are required to stop
a vehicle are remarkably higher than under non-locking conditions. In order to stop the vehicle in
a minimum space, in fact, the braking force FB which reduces the speed of the vehicle up to stop
it, should be kept to a maximum. The braking force depends on the road conditions, on the vehicle
weight and also on slip s, as shown in Fig.2. In particular, it can be observed that the braking
force increases with s for small values of s, then it reaches a maximum for about 25% slip and then
it starts decreasing for increasing slip. Under wheel-locked conditions (s=100%), the braking force
is significantly less than maximum and the space required to stop a vehicle is much more than
minimum.

1.2

ABS structure and operation

The operation of the antilock braking system (ABS) is based on the control of the braking torque TB
applied to the wheels in order to keep the slip to an optimal value which maximizes the braking force
FB . To this purpose, an electronic system with the architecture in Fig.3 is employed. Such a system
includes an electronic control unit, with the same internal structure of the engine control ECU, with
four input signals providing information of individual wheel speed. Such an information is obtained
from wheel speed sensors whose structure is analogous to engine RPM sensors introduced in the
engine control ECU. The output of the ABS ECU drives four electrovalves, which are solenoid
linear actuators. Such actuators, when operated, recirculate part of the brake fluid to a reservoir,
reducing the braking pressure, as illustrated in Fig.4.
The ABS system operates on the basis of Eqn.(2), according with the flow chart reported in
Fig.5. An estimate of the vehicle speed and of the speed of each individual wheel is obtained from
wheel speed sensors. The vehicle speed, in particular, can be estimated indirectly on the basis of
average wheel speeds as
1 r + 2 r + 3 r + 4 r
v=
(3)
4
or, in more sophisticated ABS units, on the basis of information from accelerometers.
In Fig.6 the operation of the ABS is illustrated. When the brake pedal is fully depressed by the
driver, an almost constant braking torque TB is applied to the wheels. Without the ABS control,
the speed of each wheel rapidly decreases, the slip increases and wheel lock may occur before the car
is stopped. In the presence of the ABS control, as soon as the slip coefficient for a wheel exceeds a
threshold value smax ' 30%, an electromechanical valve which recirculates part of the brake fluid to
a reservoir is actuated by the ABS ECU and the pressure in the brake circuit is therefore reduced.
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Figure 2: Braking force FB versus slip for different road conditions.

As a consequence, the braking torque applied to the wheel drops almost to zero and the only torque
applied to the wheel is FB r due to FB in Fig.6. It can be observed that FB r is a driving torque
for the wheel (i.e. it tends to increase the wheel speed), as a consequence the wheel speed starts
increasing. Since the car speed v is decreasing and the wheel speed is increasing, the slip
s=

v r
v

(4)

decreases: when it drops below the second threshold smin ' 20%, the electromechanical valve is
released and the braking torque TB is applied again.
If it occurs that the slip s exceeds again the first threshold smax , the braking torque is released
again and such a cycle is iterated until the vehicle is stopped. A typical anti-lock system can apply
and release the braking pressure up to 20 times per second. Since the slip thresholds smin and smax
are chosen around the optimal slip value for maximum vehicle braking force (i.e. 20%-30%), when
the ABS is active, the slip is kept around its optimal value (25%), therefore the effective braking
force FB is kept to maximum. As a consequence, the time (and the space) required to stop the
vehicle is much less than in the event of wheel locking (dashed line in Fig.6).

Figure 3: Electronic Architecture of the ABS system.

Figure 4: ABS actuators.

Figure 5: ABS control: flow chart of the control algorithm.

Figure 6: ABS Operation.

Electronic Stability Program (ESP)

The target of the Electronic Stability Program (ESP) is to keep the vehicle under the drivers control
(i.e. to prevent skid to occur) even in critical stability situations like panic braking or fast turning
in poor adherence conditions. To this purpose, a closed loop control is typically performed. Such
a control is in charge to monitor the required dynamic behavior (i.e. where the driver want to go)
and the actual dynamic behavior of the vehicle (i.e. where the vehicle is actually going). As soon as
the actual dynamic behavior of the vehicle is different from the drivers expected behavior, the ESP
electronic control unit selectively drives the braking system of the vehicle (a different, adequate
braking force is applied to each individual wheel) in order to restore safe driving conditions as soon
as possible (i.e. to make the vehicle go where the driver expects it goes). While all ESP systems
act on the braking system, some stability control systems also take the control of the throttle (in
order to reduce engine power) and/or of the transmission.

2.1

ESP Control Operation

The architecture of an ESP control system is reported in Fig.7. The operation of an electronic
stability control system relies on the esteem of the dynamic state of the vehicle on the basis of
measurements of different sensors which monitor quantities which are related with the dynamics of
the vehicle, in particular:
individual wheel speed
2 or 3-axis linear acceleration
yaw rate
steering wheel angular position
On the basis of the above variables, the dynamic state of the vehicle is estimated within the
electronic control unit by an observer algorithm. Abnormal operating conditions are detected by

verifying the agreement between measured quantities. For instance, the measured yaw rate
is compared with the yaw rate estimated on the basis of the steering wheel angle under normal

Figure 7: ESP Control Architecture.

Figure 8: ESP Operation in Understeer Conditions.

steering conditions, which can be expressed as:
=

f v
L + kus v 2

(5)

where f is the steering angle, v is the vehicle speed and kus is the understeer coefficient, in order
to detect understeer-oversteer conditions.
Moreover, the same yaw rate is compared with the yaw rate estimated on the basis of the lateral
acceleration ay measurement, i.e.
= ay ,
(6)

v
and on the yaw rate esteem obtained on the basis of wheels speed, i.e.
= v ,

(7)

where v is the difference of the speeds of the wheels on the same axle and t is the distance between
the wheels. The last check highlights slipping conditions.
The dynamic quantities which are evaluated by the observer are employed by the controller in
order to perform closed-loop control when necessary (i.e. in critical situations). To this purpose,
the braking actuators are selectively driven. It should be stressed that, unlike ABS, ESP often
requires to apply a braking torque on one or more wheels when the brake pedal is not depressed by
the driver. As a consequence, the braking system should be equipped with a brake pressure sensor
and with suitable electropumps which provide the required pressure.
A description of the algorithms which are employed in order to perform ESP is beyond the
scope of this course, nonetheless, the operation of an ESP equipment will be now illustrated with
reference to a practical critical driving condition example. Suppose that the driver suddenly changes
the position of the steering wheel in order to avoid an obstacle, as shown in Fig.8. In this case,
understeer is likely to occur. The ESP equipment predicts the onset of understeer conditions by
comparing the vehicles direction, estimated on the basis of the output of yaw rate and lateral
acceleration sensors, with the steering direction required by the driver, estimated on the basis of
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Figure 9: ESP Operation in Oversteer Conditions.

the steering wheel angular position sensor. Since a significant difference is noticed (the yaw rate
is less than required by the driver), a braking torque is applied to the right rear wheel. Such a
torque tends to stop the wheel and the increased friction of the tire on the road brings about an
additional yaw torque which makes the vehicles direction closer to the steering direction.
Similarly, the ESP equipment helps the driver to keep the control of the vehicle under oversteer
conditions, as shown in Fig.9. Such conditions are likely to occur when a sudden reduction of the
steering angle is operated by the driver when vehicle is turning. In this case, an excessive yaw
rate is detected by the ESP equipment and a braking torque is applied to the external front wheel.
Such a torque tends to stop the wheel and the increased friction of the tire brings about a yaw
torque which counters the excessive yaw rate and makes the vehicles direction closer to the steering
direction.

2.2

ESP Sensors and Actuators

Some of the main sensors which are employed in an ESP control systems are:
Wheel Speed Sensors
Acceleration Sensors
Yaw Rate Sensor
Steering Wheel Angular Position Sensors
The operation principle of wheel speed sensors is the same of the RPM sensors which have
been described with reference to the engine control unit. Moreover, a steering wheel angular
position sensor is analogous in concept to the throttle position sensor described with reference to
engine control and it can be implemented either as a potentiometric angular position sensor or as
a contactless inductive position sensor. Acceleration and yaw rate sensors, which have not been
presented so far, will be described in some detail in the following.
2.2.1

Acceleration Sensor (Accelerometer)

Information about linear acceleration along the main vehicles axis is usually provided by microelectromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers, which are integrated on silicon together with
their electronic front-end circuits. The operation principle of such sensors is now discussed with
reference to Fig.10. A MEMS accelerometer includes two miniaturized metal plates. One plate
is integral with the reference frame and the other is kept suspended by an elastic support with
rigidity constant kel (the spring in Fig.10). When the structure is subjected to an acceleration in
the x direction, a (fictitious) inertial force Fx = m
x, where m is the mass of the moving plate and
x
is the acceleration in the x direction, is applied to the spring and a change x in the separation
of the two plates is experienced. Such a change x, depends on the force applied in the x direction
Fx and on the rigidity constant kel and can be expressed as
x =

m
Fx
=x

kel
kel

Figure 10: MEMS accelerometer operating principle.

10

(8)

Figure 11: MEMS accelerometer acquisition front-end.

The electrical capacitance between the two plates in Fig.10 can be expressed as
C=

S
x

(9)

where is the permittivity of the dielectric separating the two plates, S is the surface of the plates
and x is the separation of the two plates. As a consequence, the change in the separation of the
two plates highlighted in (8), which is due to the acceleration x, gives rise to a change C in the
electrical capacitance:
C =

S
Sx
x
m
S

=
'
C=x

C
x x
x
x(x x)
x
xkel

(10)

that is approximatively proportional to the acceleration x. It should be observed that the relative
3
change in the plates separation x
x is typically very small (less than 10 ), so the change in
capacitance is very small (in the order of 100aF, where 1aF=1018 F).
In order to convert the capacitance change induced by acceleration into a detectable electrical
signal, a circuit similar to the one depicted in Fig.11, which includes a capacitive bridge structure,
is employed. In such a bridge, capacitors C1 and C4 are acceleration-sensitive MEMS capacitors
similar to the one introduced in Fig.10, wheras capacitors C2 and C3 are capacitors obtained on the
same chip but not sensitive to acceleration. The nominal capacitance of all the capacitors, when
no acceleration is applied, is C. The bridge in Fig.11 is driven by a square wave signal vSQ with a
peak amplitude VSQ and the differential signal vD arising at the bridge output diagonal is amplified
by a differential amplifier.
The voltage vD can be expressed in terms of the square wave voltage vSQ in the frequency
domain
Vd () =
i.e.

1
jC2

1
jC1

1
jC2

Vsq ()

1
jC4

1
jC3

1
jC4

Vsq ()

C3
C1

Vsq ().
Vd () =
C1 + C2 C3 + C4

(11)

(12)

Since the transfer function in Eqn.(12) is independent of frequency, it can be equivalently stated
in the time domain as

C1
C3
vD (t) =

vSQ (t).
(13)
C1 + C2 C3 + C4
11

Figure 12: MEMS accelerometer microphotograph.

In other words, it can be stated that the output signal vD (t) in (13) is a square wave as the input
signal vSQ (t), whose amplitude is scaled by a factor depending on capacitance ratios. Taking into
account that C1 = C + C and C3 = C + C are sensitive to acceleration, whereas C2 = C4 = C
are not sensitive to acceleration, in the presence of an acceleration in the x direction, Eqn.(13) can
be written as

C
C + C

vSQ (t).
(14)
vD (t) =
2C + C
2C + C
1 C
=
vsq (t)
(15)
2 C
m
vsq (t).
(16)
= x

xkel
As a consequence, the differential input voltage vD (t) of the amplifier is a square wave signal whose
amplitude Vd,pk = x
xkmel VSQ is proportional to the acceleration. Such a signal, which is very weak
(a few microvolt), is amplified by the amplifier in Fig.11 and the amplified output signal v, which
provides the required information on vehicle acceleration along the x axis, is acquired by the ESP
ECU.
The three components of the car acceleration can be measured by placing three of MEMS
acceleration sensors along the main vehicle axes. The vehicle speed can be also estimated by the
control unit on the basis of the vehicle acceleration measurements.

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2.2.2

Yaw Rate Sensor

A yaw rate sensor is a gyroscopic device that provides an output signal proportional to the vehicles
The measurement is based on the
angular velocity around its vertical axis, i.e. its yaw rate .
Coriolis effect.
Most yaw rate sensors include a mass m which is forced to oscillate at a given angular frequency
by electronic means (i.e. exploiting mechanical actions on the moving mass induced by electric
and/or magnetic fields) along the x direction in the plane perpendicular to the vehicles heading,
as depicted in Fig.13. As a consequence, the displacement of the mass m with respect to its idle
position can be expressed as
x(t) = X0 sin(t)
and its instantaneous speed (in the x direction) is given by
v(t) = X0 cos(t).
of the vehicle, the moving mass is subjected to the
In the presence of a nonzero yaw rate
(fictitious) Coriolis force given by

FC = 2mv
(17)
is the yaw rate of
where m and v are the mass and the speed of the oscillating element and
the vehicle. Assuming that the vehicle rotation axis is in the z direction as depicted in Fig.13, an
oscillating force
cos(t)
FC,y = 2mX0
(18)
proportional to the yaw rate arises on the moving mass in the y direction. Such a force is applied
to the upper plate of a capacitive MEMS sensor, which is integral with the moving mass and is
connected to the reference frame via an elastic element kel , as depicted in the principle diagram
of Fig.13. The operation of such a sensor in the presence of the Coriolis force is similar to the
operation of the capacitive MEMS accelerometer that has been presented above. According with
(18) and taking into account of the previous analysis, the Coriolis force induces a displacement in
the capacitor plates
FC,y
2mX0 cos(t)
=
(19)
y =
kel
kel
and a consequent change in the capacitance of the MEMS sensor
C =

y
2mX0 cos(t)
C = C
y
ykel

(20)

which can be detected by a circuit similar to the one in Fig.10. The information on the yaw rate
can be finally obtained from the peak value of the oscillating force FC,y measured by the sensor.

A microphotograph of a micromachined yaw rate sensor is reported in Fig.14.

13

Figure 13: Yaw rate sensor operation principle.

Figure 14: Yaw rate sensor microphotograph.

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