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Simulation of vehicle kinematics in rollover tests with quaternions

Article  in  Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part D Journal of Automobile Engineering · November 2006
DOI: 10.1243/09544070JAUTO360

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 1503

Simulation of vehicle kinematics in rollover tests with

quaternions
Y Hu*, C E Neal-Sturgess, and A M Hassan
Birmingham Automotive Safety Centre, School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

The manuscript was received on 12 May 2006 and was accepted after revision for publication on 21 July 2006.

DOI: 10.1243/09544070JAUTO360

Abstract: The paper provides a method to simulate the vehicle kinematics in rollover tests.
There are several rollover tests in use: SAE J2114 dolly rollover, ditch rollover, corkscrew,
curb trip, and soil trip. Sensors located on board the vehicle record the various accelerations
and make it possible to reconstruct the whole event with high accuracy, which is difficult in
real-world accidents.
Euler parameters, as a useful method to describe the orientation of a rigid body, have been
widely used in three-dimensional multi-body and rollover crash simulations. A method based
on the Euler parameters derived from the test data is used to simulate the vehicle rollover
kinematics in a SAE J2114 dolly rollover test. The detailed procedure from the raw data to the
Euler parameters is described and the influence of gravity included in the test data is removed
by projecting to a local vehicle reference system.
The method is validated by simulating the dolly rollover test in MADYMO, using a simple
rigid body model to represent the vehicle. Good agreement is obtained from the comparison
between the simulated vehicle orientation and the test video, and the comparison between
simulated displacements and calculated displacements using the recorded test accelerations
at the same points. This demonstrated that the method proposed is a useful and effective
method for simulating vehicle kinematics in rollover tests.

Keywords: simulation, rollover test, quaternions

1 INTRODUCTION It is well known that rollover is a complex event.

Rollover crashes can be amongst the most violent
of crashes in terms of occupant injury outcome,
especially for occupants in sports utility vehicles
(SUVs). From the data in the US National Accident
Sampling System – Crashworthiness Data System for
the years 1995–2004, SUV rollover accidents cover
approximately 12.2 per cent of all accidents of SUVs,
and 41 per cent of all seriously injured occupants
were involved in an accident where the SUV rolled.
Even in passenger cars which experienced a single
vehicle rollover only with ground impact, about 10.6
per cent of front-seat passengers received serious to
fatal injuries.
* Corresponding author: Birmingham Automotive Safety Centre,
School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. email:
hyz_uk@hotmail.com
There are many possible mechanisms which can lead
to several rollover types in real-world accidents. For
the integration of rollover protection into a vehicle
safety system, full-scale tests are necessary to validate
mathematical models and to give basic information
about how sensors and algorithms trigger the relevant
protection devices. In this field, several test pro-
cedures are established and in use. From these
methods, researchers expect to understand the
kinematics of the vehicle and occupants, and to
assess the injury potential during rollover.
Rollover is a semichaotic event. Small changes
in the initial conditions, owing to the extended
duration of the event, may eventually have major
consequences on the total vehicle behaviour as
the rollover progresses. For this reason, computer
simulation is an important tool for rollover research.
It allows parametric changes to be made that are
prohibitively expensive to test, it allows the same

JAUTO360 © IMechE 2006 Proc. IMechE Vol. 220 Part D: J. Automobile Engineering
1504 Y Hu, C E Neal-Sturgess, and A M Hassan

model to be run many times with different initial

conditions, and it also can use human body models,
as opposed to dummies in the tests. It also permits
accurate modelling and reproduction of initial
conditions, which is difficult in real-world rollover
tests.
Compared with other forms of vehicle accident
simulation, rollover simulation requires more accuracy
for the whole process including orientation, position,
and occupant motion. In a simulation, vehicle
kinematics are the basis for occupant simulation and
this paper provides a method to simulate the vehicle
kinematics in a rollover test efficiently and effectively.
Fig. 2 Ditch rollover test

2 TESTS AND SIMULATIONS 3. Corkscrew tollover test. The corkscrew rollover test
shown in Fig. 3 uses a ramp to lift one side of the
To date, there have been several real-world rollover vehicle with a certain speed to generate a rollover.
tests. The purpose of this test is to assess the strength
and integrity of the occupant compartment. Such
1. The SAE J2114 dolly rollover test. A dolly rollover
a test is useful for scenarios with slow-roll motion
test was described in the Society of Automotive
around the longitudinal axes of the car [2].
Engineers (SAE) Recommended Practice J2114
4. Curb trip rollover test. The vehicle is towed side-
shown in Fig. 1 as a method of evaluating the per-
ways on a moving fixture towards a stationary
formance of a vehicles’ crashworthiness during
curb. The moving fixture is decelerated at a known
rollover. The test consists of positioning a vehicle
rate, releasing the vehicle. As the vehicle moves
on a dolly fixture, which is inclined at 23° to
laterally, the tyres contact the curb shown in Fig. 4,
the horizontal. The fixture is towed at 48 km/h
(30 miles/h) and stopped suddenly to generate
the vehicle rollover. The number of rolls can vary
from one to three or more under the same initial
conditions depending on the vehicle tested.
2. Ditch rollover test. This slow-speed ditch test
emulates a real-world fall-over accident. When a
vehicle is tipped by a slope and its centre of mass
is outboard of its wheels, a fall-over happens. This
is an important test since, based on the field data
analysis, fall-over accounts for about 13 per cent
of all passenger vehicle rollover accidents [1].
Figure 2 shows a diagram of the ditch test. Fig. 3 Corkscrew rollover test

Fig. 1 SAE J2114 dolly rollover test Fig. 4 Curb trip rollover test

Proc. IMechE Vol. 220 Part D: J. Automobile Engineering JAUTO360 © IMechE 2006
 Simulation of vehicle kinematics in rollover tests with quaternions 1505

inducing a rollover depending on the speed and 3 SIMULATION METHOD

curb type.
5. Soil trip rollover test. The soil trip rollover test
shown in Fig. 5 is designed to gain insight into the
condition that the friction between the tyre and
the road surface is one of the major factors leading
to rollover. The vehicle is placed like the curb trip
test set-up. However, when the vehicle comes off
the dolly, and one of the side wheels make initial
contact with the soil surface, rollover is induced
by the interaction of the tyres with soil [1].
There are many rollover simulation models. Cheng
et al. [3] described the ATB model, which is an
analytical program using the Euler equations of
motion with Lagrange-type constraints, to simulate
the vehicle behaviours and to predict occupant
dynamics during a real rollover accident. Steffan
et al. [4] simulated a rollover test by using PC-CRASH
software, which calculates vehicle movement based
on a three-dimensional kinetic vehicle model, taking
into account gravity, tyre, wind, and trailer forces.
Renfroe et al. [5] employed the mathematical dynamic
model (MADYMO) software (TNO automotive) to
simulate a SAE J2114 dolly rollover test, and Day and
Garvey [6] in their study used a three-dimensional
This paper intends to provide an effective and
accurate method for simulating vehicle kinematics
in a rollover test. During a rollover event, when
the vehicle is airborne and not subject to the road
surface constraint, the vehicle can be considered as
a free body with six degrees of freedom. Roll, pitch,
and yaw motions can occur in any combination. To
reconstruct the event with high resolution, the most
important consideration is the vehicle attitude with
respect to an inertial coordinate system [7].
3.1 Quaternions
According to the Euler theorem, any finite rotation of
a rigid body can be expressed as a single rotation
about an appropriate base vector. In the case
under consideration here, the Euler parameters or
quaternions are applied to create a representation of
this transformation from the vehicle local coordinate
system to an inertial coordinate system, which is
commonly used in spacecraft orientation control [8],
for it has no inherent geometric singularity as do the
Euler angles. The quaternions are defined by

AB
a
vehicle model including inertial properties, tyre q =cos
0 2
model, and crush strength, to simulate a rollover test

AB
and real-world accidents. The simulations were all a
matched successfully with real test data. q =−cos b sin
1 1 2
The rollover simulations quoted above are all

AB
based on kinetic models, which are concerned with a
q =−cos b sin
the effects of forces on the motion of a body or 2 2 2
system of bodies, and so the accuracy depends on
AB
a
the initial conditions, the vehicle model properties, q =−cos b sin
3 3 2
the suspension model, the tyre model, and the con-
tact between the vehicle and ground. Usually, such (1)
models are useful to reconstruct accidents with a
where the parameters are defined in Appendix 1.
reasonable accuracy; however, to obtain an accurate
The parameters are not independent, but must
simulation of the vehicle kinematics in rollover tests,
satisfy the constraint
it is preferable to use the test data (accelerations or
displacements). q2 +q2 +q2 +q2 =1 (2)
0 1 2 3
The four Euler parameters represent the orientation
of the vehicle. In fact, the Euler angles q, c, and Q
can also be expressed by the Euler parameters
according to
sin q=2(q q −q q )
1 2 0 3
cos q sin c=−2(q q +q q )
2 3 0 1
cos q cos c=q2 −q2 +q2 −q2
0 1 2 3
2(q q +q q )
tan Q=− 1 3 0 2
q2 +q2 −q2 −q2
0 1 2 3
Fig. 5 Soil trip rollover test (3)

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1506 Y Hu, C E Neal-Sturgess, and A M Hassan

Also, there is a relationship between the angular
rates and the Euler parameters of the body in a fixed
reference frame relative to an inertial reference
frame, which is given by
Software such as MADYMO provides the interface for
the Euler parameters but, starting from the raw
accelerometer data to obtain the Euler parameters,
there are some practical factors to consider. The
following section provides the detailed procedure.

CD C DC D
q̇ +q
+q +q
0 1 2 3 v
q̇ −q −q +q x
1 =1 0 3 2 v (4) 3.2.1 Gravity effect removal
q̇ 2 +q −q −q y
2 3 0 1 v Usually an accelerometer placed in a stationary
q̇ −q +q −q z manner on the Earth with its sensitive axis pointing
3 2 1 0
To solve equation (4), there are a number of numerical vertically will give an output signal equivalent to 1G,
methods available including Taylor series expansion, assuming that it responds to static acceleration
the rotation vector concept, Runge–Kutta algorithms, inputs. However, when the body is moving, accelero-
and the state transition matrix [9]. In this paper, the meters measure accelerations, which represent the
fourth-order Runge–Kutta method is chosen as it is actual dynamics of a moving body but may also
reasonably simple and robust, and this method is be contaminated by components of the Earth’s
given by gravitational field, which may also be sensed. For
example, if such an accelerometer is left stationary
1 with its sensitive axis pointing parallel to the surface
q(t+h)=q(t)+ (k +2k +2k +k )
6 1 2 3 4 of the Earth, it will produce an output signal
k =hq(t)v(t) equivalent to 0G.
1 In a rollover event, accelerometers record inertial
k =h[q(t)+0.5k ]v(t+0.5h) and gravitational accelerations at the same time,
2 1
k =h[q(t)+0.5k ]v(t+0.5h) owing to the change in orientation of the vehicle.
3 2 The recorded acceleration is equal to the sum of the
k =h[q(t)+k ]v(t+h) inertial and gravitational acceleration according to
4 3
(5) A =A +A (7)
r i g
where
As a rollover is a long-duration event, because of
q(t)=[q (t) q (t) q (t) q (t)]T accumulated errors, the influence of gravity on the
0 1 2 3
accelerometer data may be large. In the method
and v(t)=[v (t) v (t) v (t)]T.
x y z employed in this paper, if the gravity is not removed,
When the four Euler parameters are available, the
after the coordinate transformation using the Euler
orientation of the vehicle is completely determined,
parameters, the a and a values are the same, but
and the coordinate transformation can be expressed x y
the a value would shift 1G between the cases with
as z
and without gravity. The difference in acceleration

CD
x and velocity for the Z direction only is shown in the
b
y Figs 6 and 7.
b It can be seen from the above that, to obtain
z accurate estimates of the position, it is necessary to
b
remove the gravity effect before the double integration

C D
q2+q2−q2−q2 2(q q −q q ) 2(q q +q q )
0 1 2 3 1 2 0 3 1 3 0 2 of the acceleration. In general, the gravity and inertial
= 2(q q +q q ) q2−q2+q2−q2 2(q q −q q ) accelerations cannot be completely separated with-
1 2 0 3 0 1 2 3 2 3 0 1
2(q q −q q ) 2(q q +q q ) q2−q2−q2+q2 out information about the vehicle orientation [7].
1 3 0 2 2 3 0 1 0 1 2 3 Praxl [10] mentioned that there were some extra

CD
x calculations to consider the gravity in the coordinate
a
× y (6) data transformation, but he did not provide a
a detailed process. Takagi et al. [11] applied angular
z acceleration and linear accelerations to remove the
a
gravity effect. The angular acceleration was deter-
3.2 Practical factors
mined by taking the derivative of the angular rate
The Euler parameters, as a useful method to describe data. This method is sensitive to the angular rate data;
the orientation of a rigid body, have been widely it is easy to induce a derivative error and requires a
used in three-dimensional multi-body simulations. high-precision angular velocity sensor. In fact, by

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 Simulation of vehicle kinematics in rollover tests with quaternions 1507

Fig. 6 Gravity effect on the acceleration (Z direction)

Fig. 7 Gravity effect on the velocity (Z direction)

using equation (6) to remove the effect of gravity, the
process is simplified. The gravitational acceleration
can be projected on to the local vehicle coordinate
system and removed from the accelerometer output,
to obtain the inertial accelerations along the local
vehicle coordinate system. Alternatively, after the
raw accelerations are transformed to the inertial
reference, the effect of gravity can be removed by
subtracting the gravitational acceleration from the
vertical direction.
3.2.2 Offset correction and filters
Owing to offset, drift, noise, and sensitivity errors,
there will always be errors arising in the output from
any sensor. For this reason, offset correction or bias
removal, and some filters, need to be applied to the
raw sensor signals.
As mentioned above, because of the gravity effect,
the recorded acceleration is not zero even when the
vehicle is stationary. For example, when the vehicle
is on the dolly in a SAE J2114 dolly rollover test, the
output of the accelerometer along the vertical axis of
the vehicle is equal to G cos 23°. For this reason, it is
important to analyse the vehicle orientation and
gravity effect during the offset correction. The offset
correction can use an averaging algorithm, which
assumes that the signal is corrected by subtracting a
bias from each point on the signal.
Based on the current National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) filtering standard SAE
J211-1, the CFC60 cut-off frequencies are applied
to acceleration data, whereas the CFC1000 cut-off
frequencies are applied to the angular rate data.
3.3 Method
The total procedure used can be divided into three
steps.
Step 1. The raw test data, including the acceleration
and angular rate of the centre of gravity (CG) of the
vehicle, were adjusted for any offset and filtered,
by using signal analysis software for Microsoft
Windows, which can be found at http://www-
nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/software/signal-analysis/
downloads.html.

JAUTO360 © IMechE 2006 Proc. IMechE Vol. 220 Part D: J. Automobile Engineering
1508 Y Hu, C E Neal-Sturgess, and A M Hassan
Step 2. To find the orientation of the vehicle,
quaternions can be obtained by solving equation
(4) using offset-corrected and filtered angle rates
from Step 1. The numerical integration used a
fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. Then, the
gravity components are available by projecting the
gravity on to the vehicle-fixed coordinate system
using equation (6). These are then subtracted from
the acceleration data, determined in Step 1, to
obtain the inertial accelerations in the vehicle-
fixed coordinate system. After projecting on to the
inertial or Earth coordinate system, the inertial
accelerations are available. The main program
code in Visual Basic is provided in Appendix 2.
Step 3. The displacements of the CG of the vehicle
are calculated by double integration of the inertial
accelerations obtained in Step 2. The displacement
and Euler parameters were then used as the input
for the MADYMO model in the global coordinate
system. The detailed flow chart of data process is
shown in Fig. 8.
4 RESULTS
To verify the method, a SAE J2114 dolly rollover
test was chosen. The test was performed by the
NHTSA in 1997. The accelerations a , a , and a
cgx cgy cgz
of the CG of the vehicle and the angular velocities
v , v , and v , along the longitudinal, lateral, and
x y z
vertical axes respectively of the vehicle were recorded.
The test duration was approximately 6 s. In this
paper, because of the accumulated errors and com-
putational constraints, only the first 3 s are simulated
with the MADYMO software (TNO automotive).
Fig. 8 Data process flow chart
Proc. IMechE Vol. 220 Part D: J. Automobile Engineering
The kinematics during the first 3 s represent the
most severe portion of the rollover in terms of injury
causation, as the highest head, neck, and chest
accelerations of dummies happen in this period.
Also, as there was little roof crush in the first 3 s of
the test, and the vehicle rollover can be simulated as
a rigid body.
The rigid body shown in Fig. 9 is used to represent
the test vehicle with a similar geometry, and the
same dimensions, moments of inertia, mass, initial
velocity, and position. For the test vehicle, two
ellipsoids are shaped to give the vehicle figuration,
and four cylinders represented the tyres, which are
for visual aid only, as they are not included in the
computations and do not have any functional con-
tact interaction. In this model, the vehicle kinematics
are prescribed by specifying the motion for all
degrees of freedom of a free joint and determined
by the data collected at the vehicle’s CG. This can,
within limits, accurately model the kinematics of the
vehicle without the complications of modelling
the vehicle suspension and tyre characteristics,
which are difficult to model accurately.
Figure 10 shows the displacements of the CG of the
vehicle in the inertial reference system calculated by
the method outlined above, and Fig. 11 shows the
four Euler parameters representing the orientation
of the vehicle. The vehicle motion is shown in Fig. 12.
4.1 Validation
To validate the simulation, two comparisons were
conducted. One was a visual comparison between
the orientation of the vehicle in the simulation and
that shown by the film of the test. Figure 13 shows
the comparison at some key orientations. From this
comparison, it can be seen that the simulation pro-
vided good agreement with the vehicle orientation
from the test, except for a slight error at 1.05 s, which
may be due to suspenion effects.
Fig. 9 Vehicle model
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 Simulation of vehicle kinematics in rollover tests with quaternions 1509

Fig. 10 Vehicle position

Fig. 11 Vehicle orientation expressed as the Euler parameters

Fig. 12 Vehicle motion comparison

The other comparison is between the simulated
displacements of a point on the test vehicle where
an accelerometer was attached, and the calculated
displacements from the accelerations recorded by
that accelerometer. Figures 14 to 16 show the
results. About after 1.5 s, the displacements in the
longitudinal direction shown in Fig. 14 began to
show discrepancies. This is because the angular rate
v around the roll axis is not sufficiently accurate,
y
because some data are lost in the test, and the vehicle
is not a rigid body in the real test, which can also
have a small effect on the displacements along the
roll and pitch directions.
In particular the suspension and tyres are modelled
as rigid bodies for convenience, which will affect the
kinematics in this mode. Figures 15 and 16 show

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1510 Y Hu, C E Neal-Sturgess, and A M Hassan

Fig. 13 Vehicle attitude comparison

Fig. 14 X displacement comparison

Fig. 15 Y displacement comparison

Proc. IMechE Vol. 220 Part D: J. Automobile Engineering JAUTO360 © IMechE 2006
 Simulation of vehicle kinematics in rollover tests with quaternions
Fig. 16 Z displacement comparison
much better accuracy; overall it is reasonable to
conclude that the simulation is successful and
demonstrates the usefulness of the model.
5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The simulation showed good agreement between the
test and simulation, it showed that using the Euler
parameters to reconstruct the vehicle kinematics in
rollover tests is an effective and useful method. The
reasons are as follows.
1. Only products exist in the Euler parameters
defining the kinematic differential equations.
2. Using only the angular rate sensor rather than
linear accelerations to solve the orientation
decreases the errors in the numerical solution.
3. As the measurements are related to the CG, then
there is only one point at which the accelerations
of the CG and the angular velocities along the
longitudinal, lateral, and vertical axes are recorded.
This means that the method developed is suitable
for all rollover tests where the accelerations and
angular rates are available.
This method allows the study of vehicle move-
ments in rollover events and thus can be used to
determine the occupant contact, kinematics, loads,
and injury mechanisms. Once the vehicle mechanics
have been established, a compartment model can be
constructed in which the occupant model can be
described. Different interior designs with respect to
the occupant and restraint system can be evaluated
without having to repeat the real-world test, as it is
simple to add or change constraints or objects. It also
provides a means to separate gravity from inertial
JAUTO360 © IMechE 2006
1511
accelerations, which can also be used for other
applications that need gravity effect removal.
This method avoids the complication of vehicle
suspension and tyres and ignores the contact between
the vehicle and ground, which greatly simplify the
simulation. However, it also means that there are
some limitations. For the parts of the vehicle close
to the CG, the simulation is of good accuracy but,
for other parts remote from the CG, the accuracy
decreases slightly; this is because of the simplification
of modelling the suspension and tyres. Thus this
method can give good accuracy for simulating
occupant protection research where the occupants
are near to the CG of the vehicle [12].
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is financially supported by the Overseas
Research Students Award Scheme (2003–2006), UK,
and the University of Birmingham.
REFERENCES
1 Gopal, M., Baron, K., and Shah, M. Simulation and
testing of a suite of field relevant rollovers. SAE paper
2004-01-0335, 2004.
2 Berg, F. A., Behling, R., and Helbig, M. Rollover
crash tests. Int. J. Crashworthiness, 2002, l7(4),
487–498.
3 Cheng, H., Rizer, A. L., and Obergefell, L. A. Pickup
truck rollover accident reconstruction using the ATB
model. SAE paper 950133, 1995.
4 Steffan, H., Geigl, B. C., and Moser, A. A new
approach to occupant simulation through the
coupling of PC-Crash and MADYMO. SAE paper
1999-01-0444, 1999.
Proc. IMechE Vol. 220 Part D: J. Automobile Engineering
1512 Y Hu, C E Neal-Sturgess, and A M Hassan

5 Renfroe, D. A., Partain, J., and Lafferty, J. Modeling Q yaw angle

of vehicle rollover and evaluation of occupant injury v ,v ,v instantaneous angular rates of the
potential using MADYMO. SAE paper 980021, 1998. x y z
body in the fixed reference
6 Day, T. D. and Garvey, J. T. Applications and
coordinate system
limitations of 3-dimensional vehicle rollover simu-
lation. SAE paper 2000-01-0852, 2000. v(t) angular rate function
7 Schubert, P. J., Nichols, D., Wallner, E. J., Kong, H.,
and Schiffmann, J. K. Electronics and algorithms for
rollover sensing, SAE paper 2004-01-0343, 2004. APPENDIX 2
8 Wetz, J. R. (Ed.) Spacecraft attitude determination
and control, 1978 (Reidel, Dordrecht).
9 Wie, B. Space vehicle dynamics and control, 1998 Visual Basic main program code for solving
(American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, inertial acceleration data
Reston, Virginia).
The code is as follows.
10 Praxl, N. Simulation of occupant kinematics in
vehicle rollover – dummy model versus human Private Sub Caculation_Click()
model. In Proceedings of the 18th International
Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of
‘Initial value of Euler parameters
Vehicles, Nagoya, Japan, 2003, Paper 202. q0=0.9799247
11 Takagi, H., Maruyama, A., Dix, J., and Kawaguchi, K. q1=0.1993679
MAYDMO modeling method of rollover event and q2=0
occupant behavior in each rollover initiation type. q3=0
In Proceedings of the 18th International Technical
Conference on The Enhanced Safety of Vehicles, ‘Initial value of C.G. velocity
Nagoya, Japan, 2003, Paper 236. f_finalVx=0
12 Hu, Y., Neal-Sturgess, C. E., Hassan, A. M., and f_finalVy=13.408
Guo, R. The effect of an inflatable tubular structure f_finalVz=0
on occupant kinematics in rollover of an SUV. In
Proceeding of the International Crashworthiness ‘Time step
Conference 2006, Athens, Greece, 2006, Paper f_Step=0.000125 1 2
2006-23 (on CD-ROM).
‘Input the acceleration data and angular rate of
C.G.
APPENDIX 1 Input #1, f_time1, f_Ax1, f_Ay1, f_Az1, f_Wx1,
f_Wy1, f_Wz1
Notation
‘Call function 1st order Runge-Kutta to K1
A gravitational acceleration parameter
g
A inertial acceleration Call K1(q0, q1, q2, q3, f_Wx1, f_Wy1, f_Wz1)
i
A recorded acceleration of the
r ‘Loop to 3seconds
accelerometer
G acceleration due to gravity= For i=0 To 12000
9.8 m/s2 ‘Input the next time acceleration data and
h time step angular rate of C.G.
k ,k ,k ,k Runge–Kutta parameters Input #1, f_time2, f_Ax2, f_Ay2, f_Az2, f_Wx2,
1 2 3 4
q ,q ,q ,q quaternions f_Wy2, f_Wz2
0 1 2 3
q(t) quaternion function Input #1, f_time3, f_Ax3, f_Ay3, f_Az3, f_Wx3,
t time f_Wy3, f_Wz3
x ,y ,z coordinates in the reference system
a a a
X Y Z ‘Call Runge-Kutta function get K2,K3,K4.
a a a
x ,y ,z coordinates in the reference system Call K2(q0+0.5 1 fK1_Q0, q1+0.5 1 fK1_Q1,
b b b
X Y Z q2+0.5 1 fK1_Q2, q3+0.5 1 fK1_Q3,
b b b
f_Wx2, f_Wy2, f_Wz2)
a rotation angle Call K3(q0+0.5 1 fK2_Q0, q1+0.5 1 fK2_Q1,
b ,b ,b angles between a given vector and q2+0.5 1 fK2_Q2, q3+0.5 1 fK2_Q3,
1 2 3
the reference coordinate system f_Wx2, f_Wy2, f_Wz2)
c roll angle Call K4(q0+fK3_Q0, q1+fK3_Q1, q2+fK3_Q2,
q pitch angle q3+fK3_Q3, f_Wx3, f_Wy3, f_Wz3)

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 Simulation of vehicle kinematics in rollover tests with quaternions 1513

‘Get the next time Euler Parameters fReturn0=f_Step 1 0.5 1

q0=q0+1/6 1 (fK1_Q0+2 1 fK2_Q0+2 1 (fQ1 1 fWx+fQ2 1 fWy+fQ3 1 fWz)
fK3_Q0+fK4_Q0) fReturn1=f_Step 1 0.5 1
q1=q1+1/6 1 (fK1_Q1+2 1 fK2_Q1+2 1 (−fQ0 1 fWx−fQ3 1 fWy+fQ2 1 fWz)
fK3_Q1+fK4_Q1) fReturn2=f_Step 1 0.5 1
q2=q2+1/6 1 (fK1_Q2+2 1 fK2_Q2+2 1 (fQ3 1 fWx−fQ0 1 fWy−fQ1 1 fWz)
fK3_Q2+fK4_Q2) fReturn3=f_Step 1 0.5 1
q3=q3+1/6 1 (fK1_Q3+2 1 fK2_Q3+2 1 (−fQ2 1 fWx+fQ1 1 fWy−fQ0 1 fWz)
fK3_Q3+fK4_Q3)
If n=1 Then
‘Call Runge-Kutta function to get K1. fK1_Q0=fReturn0
Call K1(q0, q1, q2, q3, f_Wx3, f_Wy3, f_Wz3) fK1_Q1=fReturn1
fK1_Q2=fReturn2
‘Get the Gravity effect on the vehicle-fixed fK1_Q3=fReturn3
coordinates ElseIf n=2 Then
fAGx=Gx 1 (q0 1 q0+q1 1 q1−q2 1 q2−q3 1 fK2_Q0=fReturn0
q3)+Gy 1 (2 1 (q1 1 q2−q0 1 q3))+ Gz 1 fK2_Q1=fReturn1
(2 1 (q1 1 q3+q0 1 q2)) fK2_Q2=fReturn2
fAGy=Gx 1 (2 1 (q1 1 q2+q0 1 q3))+Gy 1 fK2_Q3=fReturn3
(q0 1 q0−q1 1 q1+q2 1 q2−q3 1 q3)+Gz ElseIf n=3 Then
1 (2 1 (q2 1 q3−q0 1 q1)) fK3_Q0=fReturn0
fAGz=Gx 1 (2 1 (q1 1 q3−q0 1 q2)) fK3_Q1=fReturn1
+Gy 1 (2 1 (q2 1 q3+q0 1 q1))+Gz 1 fK3_Q2=fReturn2
(q0 1 q0−q1 1 q1−q2 1 q2+q3 1 q3) fK3_Q3=fReturn3
‘remove gravity effect. ElseIf n=4 Then
fAcgx=f_Ax3−fAGx fK4_Q0=fReturn0
fAcgy=f_Ay3−fAGy fK4_Q1=fReturn1
fAcgz=f_Az3−fAGz fK4_Q2=fReturn2
fK4_Q3=fReturn3
‘Project the acceleration data on the inertial End If
coordinates. End Function
fAcx=fAcgx 1 (q0 1 q0+q1 1 q1−q2 1
Public Function K1(fQ0, fQ1, fQ2, fQ3, fW1, fW2,
q2−q3 1 q3)+fAcgy 1 (2 1 (q1 1 q2+q0 1
fW3)
q3)) +fAcgz 1 (2 1 (q1 1 q3−q0 1 q2))
Call F(1, fQ0, fQ1, fQ2, fQ3, fW1, fW2, fW3)
fAcy=fAcgx 1 (2 1 (q1 1 q2−q0 1 q3))+fAcgy
End Function
1 (q0 1 q0−q1 1 q1+q2 1 q2−q3 1 q3)+
fAcgz 1 (2 1 (q2 1 q3+q0 1 q1)) Public Function K2(fQ0, fQ1, fQ2, fQ3, fW1, fW2,
fAcz=fAcgx 1 (2 1 (q1 1 q3+q0 1 q2)) fW3)
+fAcgy 1 (2 1 (q2 1 q3−q0 1 q1))+fAcgz Call F(2, fQ0, fQ1, fQ2, fQ3, fW1, fW2, fW3)
1 (q0 1 q0−q1 1 q1−q2 1 q2+q3 1 q3) End Function

Next Public Function K3(fQ0, fQ1, fQ2, fQ3, fW1, fW2,

End Sub fW3)
Call F(3, fQ0, fQ1, fQ2, fQ3, fW1, fW2, fW3)
‘Function of 4th order Runge-Kutta End Function
Public Function F(n, fQ0, fQ1, fQ2, fQ3, fWx, fWy,
fWz) Public Function K4(fQ0, fQ1, fQ2, fQ3, fW1, fW2,
fW3)
Dim fReturn0, fReturn1, fReturn2, fReturn3 As Call F(4, fQ0, fQ1, fQ2, fQ3, fW1, fW2, fW3)
Double End Function

JAUTO360 © IMechE 2006 Proc. IMechE Vol. 220 Part D: J. Automobile Engineering

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