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Active Front Independent Steering System and Its Control For Road Vehicle With Understeer Characteristics
Active Front Independent Steering System and Its Control For Road Vehicle With Understeer Characteristics
inner and outer wheels [5, 6]. Such a control strategy would
Abstract—Active steering systems improve vehicle handling by require an independently controllable steering system, referred
controlling the steer angle of the wheels depending on speed. Such to here as Active Independent Front Steering (AIFS).
controls, however, have limitations as they do not attempt to utilize Furthermore, criteria must be established to quantify the
tires’ force generating potential. The present study proposes Active
Independent Front Steering (AIFS) technique with independent
ability of tire to generate further force or determine their
control for each front wheel such that the tire workload for each saturation limit. The concept of tire workload [7, 8] defined as
steered wheel is equalized. A simple control scheme has been the ratio of normal load to resultant tire force can be an
developed for a vehicle with understeer handling characteristics effective measure for implementation of the AIFS system. The
which applies the corrective input primarily to the outer wheel. The present investigation is carried out to evaluate the concept of
results show that proposed concept of AIFS can provide AIFS with a control strategy applicable to a vehicle with
performances equal to that of a conventional active steering system
while tire work loads are balanced to maximize the performance
under steer characteristics. A simple Proportional Integral
limits. (PI) controller is utilized to generate corrective steering for the
inner and outer wheels such that the target is realized while
Keywords— Active independent steering, tire workload, attempt is made to equalize the tire workloads of both the
understeer vehicle, Vehicle handling, tires. Simulation results generated for AIFS for a rounded step
and sinusoidal lane change maneuvers are compared with
I. INTRODUCTION those of AFS and uncontrolled systems to illustrate the
effectiveness of the proposed concept.
T HE concept of Active Front Steering (AFS) system has
been around since the 90’s. It has gained new momentum
with the advancement of sensors and control systems. II. SYSTEM MODEL
Conventional AFS system [1, 2] modifies the driver command
A. Vehicle System
steering input by a corrective steering angle in order to realize
a target response for that command at any forward speed. The Handling study of conventional AFS system will typically
correction is however made to both the steered wheels that are employ a bicycle model of road vehicle without regard to
designed to closely follow Ackerman steering geometry. Such lateral load shift or tire’s saturation limit. To examine the
control strategy can provide adequate performance at low proposed AIFS, it is essential to develop a 4-wheel vehicle
speed maneuvers [3, 4] until the dynamic load shift from the handling model that includes tire non-linearity and vehicle roll
inner to the outer wheel become significant [5]. During a high dynamics. Using the vehicle coordinate system shown in
lateral acceleration maneuver, the inner tire with less normal Fig.1, the normal forces for each of the tires are:
load can generate significantly less cornering force than the
outer tire with much higher normal load. The AFS induced m a x h cg m a y h cg c
correction to both wheel will therefore tend to saturate the
Front, Right wheel : Fz.f .R = Wf − +
2L 2 Tf L
inner tire while the outer tire capacity remain unexploited [6].
m a x h cg m a y h cg c
In order to maximize the performance potentials of AFS, it is Front, Left wheel : Fz.f .L = Wf − −
necessary that different corrections are introduced for the 2L 2 Tf L (1)
m a x h cg m a y h cg b
A.K.W. Ahmed is with the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Rear, Right wheel : Fz.r.R = Wr + +
Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8 (phone: 514-848- 2L 2 Tr L
2424 Ext. 7932; fax: 514-848-3175; e-mail: waiz@alcor.concordia.ca). m a x h cg m a y h cg b
V. Rawat was with Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G Rear, Left wheel : Fz.r.L = Wr + −
1M8. He is now with development division of Tata Motors, Pune India (e- 2L 2 Tr L
mail: vaibhavrawat@gmail.com).
R.B. Bhat is with the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia
University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8 (e-mail:
rbhat@alcor.concordia.ca).
146
International Conference on Advances in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (ICAEME'2012) 18-19, 2012 Phuket (Thailand)
where δ L, R are the steering angles for left and right wheels.
The tire lateral forces (F yi ) and aligning moments (M i ) are
computed from well-established non-linear Pacejka’s Magic
Formula [9] tire model. The coefficients of the magic formula
used are those corresponding to a medium size car tire
provided in [9] and the slip angles for each of the four tires are
computed from [10]:
Fzr Fzf b ⋅ Ω + Vy −1
c ⋅ Ω − Vy
FzR FzL α f ⋅R = δ R − tan −1 ; α r ⋅R = tan
V x + T f ⋅ Ω V x + Tr ⋅ Ω (3)
b ⋅ Ω + Vy −1
c ⋅ Ω − Vy
α f ⋅L = δ L − tan −1 ; α r⋅L = tan
V x − T f ⋅ Ω V x − Tr ⋅ Ω
B. Control System
Pro-Ackerman steering geometry is desirable for passenger
vehicles to minimize tire scrub and related noise and wear. On
the other hand, anti-Ackerman ratio as used in race cars [11]
has its merits where the tire capable of developing higher
lateral force is allowed to do so. The control strategy
proposed in this investigation utilizes Ackerman steering
geometry with active independent front steering (AIFS)
control. The control strategy will also allow anti-Ackerman
ratio for high speeds when necessary to realize the reference
yaw-rate, while optimizing the tire work-load.
Fig 2 Forces and moments acting on the vehicle
In order to realize a target response at any speed, an
understeer vehicle’s steering angle must be increased with
With reference to Fig 2, the final expressions for the
speed. Furthermore the corrective steering angle should be
equations of motion are:
primarily added to the outer wheel with lower workload. In
[ ]
the event the inner tire reaches saturation or the tire workload
m a x = − F y. f . R sin(δ R ) + F y. f . L sin(δ L ) approaches unity, the angle for the inner tire should be
(2) reduced while that of the outer increased further. The initial
[ ] [
m a y = F y. f . R cos(δ R ) + F y. f . L cos(δ L ) + F y.r . R + F y.r . L ] results presented in this paper are obtained for corrective
angle to the outer wheel only in order to demonstrate the
effectiveness of AIFS system. The controller thus must
= − ∑ M + F [
y . f . R {b cos(δ R ) − T f sin(δ R ) } ]
4
identify the outer wheel prior to any corrective action taken. A
Iz Ω i
1 general AIFS control strategy is presented in Fig. 3 and the
[
+ Fy. f .L {b cos(δ L ) + T f sin(δ L ) } − c Fy.r .R + Fy.r .L ] present investigation considers only an understeer vehicle.
147
International Conference on Advances in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (ICAEME'2012) 18-19, 2012 Phuket (Thailand)
the controller corrected steering input for the inner and outer
wheels.
δst
Steering Steering Accelerations
Driver Model
Forces/Moments Velocities
148
International Conference on Advances in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (ICAEME'2012) 18-19, 2012 Phuket (Thailand)
0.4 Ideal 1
No control
0.3
6 The simulated yaw rates of the vehicle for AFS, AIFS, and
without control are shown in Fig. 8(a) in comparison to the
Driver steering commnad ideal response. As the results show, both AFS and AIFS are
4 AFS-Right, Outer capable of providing the target response, whereas the
AFS-Left, Inner uncontrolled system will generate significantly lower yaw rate
AIFS-Right, Outer at this speed unless the steering angle is increased by the
2 AIFS-Left, Inner
driver. The resulting trajectory or the path of the vehicle is
shown in Fig. 8(b) for the three systems which illustrate the
0 magnitude of this deviation.
0 5 10 15 Similar to step input response, the AIFS realized the target
Time (sec)
Time (Sec) response in lane change by modifying the steer angle of the
Fig. 6 The steering input and angle generated at each wheel outer wheel alone. However, for a sinusoidal input or a lane
change maneuver, the right wheel is the outer wheel only for
The results show that the AIFS correction was achieved by half the cycle after which the left wheel will become the outer
increasing the outer (right) wheel steer angle alone to 8 wheel. The steering angles generated by the AFS and AIFS in
degrees, while for AFS both the the inner and outer were order to realize the responses in Fig. 8 are shown in Fig. 9.
increased above 7 degrees. The AFS by design maintained the The results show that steering angle for AFS was increased
Ackerman steering ratio and the increase was necessary to from driver command of 1.72 degrees peak to peak while the
realize the target at this speed. However, due to lack of normal increase was applied to both the left and right wheels. The
load on the inner (left) wheel, the workload on the inner wheel AIFS realized the same target response by applying totally
of AFS system was the highest as shown in Fig. 7. These different strategy where the corrective angle was applied to
results showing workload for each tire during the maneuver the right wheel for first half of the cycle while the left being
indicate that the inner of AFS has reached saturation while the inner wheel was kept at the level of driver command. For
that of the outer wheel is the lowest. On the other hand, for the second half of the cycle, the right wheel was brought back
AIFS, the workload of both tires is close to each other. With to the level of driver command while the required increase in
independent controllability of AIFS system, it is possible for the cornering force was realized by the increase in the steering
the controller to reduce the steer angle of the inner (left) wheel angle of the left wheel. The results presented in Fig. 9 further
while increase that of the outer (right) wheel further to realize indicate that the switching between the inner and outer wheel
the target. And in doing so, the workload will be equalized. takes place prior to reaching the half cycle. It is attributed to
This will leave each of the tires a reserve to develop further the attempt of controller to maintain target yaw rate and the
cornering or braking force without any of the tires reaching point during the cycle where no correction is required to
saturation. realize the target.
In order to examine the performance of the proposed The performance measure in terms of tire work load of left
concept in a lane change maneuver, next set of results are and right wheels of AFS and AIFS systems for the lane
generated for a sinusoidal steering input of peak to peak change
magnitude 0.03 rad (1.72 degrees) over a period of 2π sec.
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International Conference on Advances in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (ICAEME'2012) 18-19, 2012 Phuket (Thailand)
0.4
(a)
Ideal AFS-Right
0.1
0 0
-0.05
-0.2
-0.1
-0.4
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
Time (sec) Time (sec)
(b)
Fig. 10 Tire workload for a lane change maneuver
20
IV. CONCLUSION
Y Co-ordinate (m)
15
The concept of AIFS with appropriate controller can be
designed for an understeer vehicle to realize target response to
10 a handling command similar to conventional AFS system.
AIFS can however, enhance the performance limits of AFS by
5 increasing the tire’s capability as it tends to equalize the
workloads of the tires. In contrast to an understeer vehicle, an
0
oversteer vehicle will require a more complex control strategy
0 50 100 150 200 250 as the steer angle must be reduced with speed to realize target.
X Co-ordinate (m)
Fig. 8 Yaw rate and vehicle trajectory for lane change maneuver
REFERENCES
[1] Ackermann, J., Odenthal, D. and Bunte, T. “Advantages of Active
Driver steering commnad
Steering input and Output, δ (deg)
150