Stability Control on Tractor Semi-Trailer during Split-Mu Braking

2011 ◽  
Vol 230-232 ◽  
pp. 549-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Wen Zhou ◽  
Si Qi Zhang ◽  
Guang Yao Zhao

Handling behaviour of articulated vehicles combination is more complex and less predictable than that of non-articulated vehicles. It is usually difficult for drivers to maneuver a tractor semi-trailer during high speed emergency braking on split-mu road surface. Braking on this type of road surface, the conventional anti-lock braking systems will cause the vehicle deviate from the desired direction, or overmuch stopping distance. In this paper, a 3-dof of tractor semi-trailer model was used to produce desired yaw rates which were compared with actual yaw rates. An active front steering control and four-channel ABS were integrated to improve the tractor semi-trailer lateral stability while braking on split-mu road surface, which will produce maximum braking force. A full function tractor semi-trailer model was built and assembled in multi-body dynamics software, and the dynamic analysis was performed on split-mu road surface. The simulation results show that the integrated system can improve the tractor semi-trailer lateral stability under braking on split-mu road surface.

2011 ◽  
Vol 204-210 ◽  
pp. 1724-1727
Author(s):  
Si Qi Zhang ◽  
Shu Wen Zhou ◽  
Guang Yao Zhao

Because of the high speed and insufficient stopping distance, a sudden obstacle will force the vehicle to perform a lane change maneuver to avoid a crash or rear-end collision. A vehicle yaw following control system was designed in this paper to prevent vehicles from spinning and drifting out on high speed obstacle avoidance under emergency. However, yaw following control system, in some situation, may not react properly to, or even deteriorate on-road rollover events. Four-wheel steering control system can reduce the excessive yaw movement due to yaw following control system. An integration control system, including yaw following control system and four-wheel steering control system was presented and discussed. With this improved control system, the vehicle lateral stability can be improved on high speed obstacle avoidance.


2010 ◽  
Vol 29-32 ◽  
pp. 1420-1424
Author(s):  
Shu Wen Zhou ◽  
Si Qi Zhang ◽  
Guang Yao Zhao

Since the handling behaviour of car-trailer combination is more complex and less predictable than that of non-articulated vehicles, the drivers may lose control of the vehicle in some hasty steering maneuvers. The kinematics of car-trailer combination has been analyzed with a 3 DOF model. A modified Vehicle Dynamics Control system was designed to improve the lateral stability of the trailer. The dynamics simulation for lateral stability of car-trailer combination has been performed on the multi-body model. The results show that the lateral stability of car-trailer combination, including yaw rate and roll angle has been improved with the modified Vehicle Dynamics Control system.


2011 ◽  
Vol 299-300 ◽  
pp. 1303-1306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Wen Zhou ◽  
Si Qi Zhang ◽  
Guang Yao Zhao

Emergency braking on a low coefficient of friction or split-mu road surface, the semi-trailer may push the tractor from behind until it spins round and faces backwards, and a jackknife accident occurs. In this paper, the tractor semi-trailer kinematics was analyzed and a 3-dof of tractor semi-trailer model was used to design a state observer to estimate the articulation angle. To avoid a jackknife, the four-channel ABS which can produce maximum braking force will be switch to three-channel ABS according the estimated articulation angle. The virtual prototyping simulation results show that the jackknife control system can improve the tractor semi-trailer lateral stability under emergency braking and shorten the stop distance dramatically on split-mu road surface at high speed.


Author(s):  
B. A. Jujnovich ◽  
D. Cebon

Passive steering systems have been used for some years to control the steering of trailer axles on articulated vehicles. These normally use a “command steer” control strategy, which is designed to work well in steady-state circles at low speeds, but which generates inappropriate steer angles during transient low-speed maneuvers and at high speeds. In this paper, “active” steering control strategies are developed for articulated heavy goods vehicles. These aim to achieve accurate path following for tractor and trailer, for all paths and all normal vehicle speeds, in the presence of external disturbances. Controllers are designed to implement the path-following strategies at low and high speeds, whilst taking into account the complexities and practicalities of articulated vehicles. At low speeds, the articulation and steer angles on articulated heavy goods vehicles are large and small-angle approximations are not appropriate. Hence, nonlinear controllers based on kinematics are required. But at high-speeds, the dynamic stability of control system is compromised if the kinematics-based controllers remain active. This is because a key state of the system, the side-slip characteristics of the trailer, exhibits a sign-change with increasing speeds. The low and high speed controllers are blended together using a speed-dependent gain, in the intermediate speed range. Simulations are conducted to compare the performance of the new steering controllers with conventional vehicles (with unsteered drive and trailer axles) and with vehicles with command steer controllers on their trailer axles. The simulations show that active steering has the potential to improve significantly the directional performance of articulated vehicles for a wide range of conditions, throughout the speed range.


2010 ◽  
Vol 118-120 ◽  
pp. 728-732
Author(s):  
Shu Wen Zhou ◽  
Si Qi Zhang ◽  
Guang Yao Zhao

Tractor semitrailers on high speed obstacle avoidance under emergency are likely to arise rollover or jack-knifing, which are serious risks for motorists. A dynamic stability analysis model of a three-axle tractor semitrailer vehicle is developed using the application tool. The linearized vehicle model is utilized to predict the dynamics state of the tractor semitrailer built in multibody dynamics simulation software. The lateral stability simulation for yaw rate following and anti-rollover has been performed on the dynamic model based on virtual prototyping. The results show that the lateral stability control based on tractor semitrailer proposed in this paper can stabilize the tractor semitrailer, rollover and jack-knifing can be prevented to a large extent.


Author(s):  
Richard Roebuck ◽  
Andrew Odhams ◽  
Kristoffer Tagesson ◽  
Caizhen Cheng ◽  
David Cebon

A high-speed path-following controller for long combination vehicles (LCVs) was designed and implemented on a test vehicle consisting of a rigid truck towing a dolly and a semitrailer. The vehicle was driven through a 3.5 m wide lane change maneuver at 80 km/h. The axles of the dolly and trailer were steered actively by electrically-controlled hydraulic actuators. Substantial performance benefits were recorded compared with the unsteered vehicle. For the best controller weightings, performance improvements relative to unsteered case were: lateral tracking error 75% reduction, rearward amplification (RA) of lateral acceleration 18% reduction, and RA of yaw rate 37% reduction. This represents a substantial improvement in stability margins. The system was found to work well in conjunction with the braking-based stability control system of the towing vehicle with no negative interaction effects being observed. In all cases, the stability control system and the steering system improved the yaw stability of the combination.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0252098
Author(s):  
Jie Tian ◽  
Qingkang Zeng ◽  
Peng Wang ◽  
Xiaoqing Wang

This paper investigates the active steering control of the tractor and the trailer for the articulated heavy vehicle (AHV) to improve its high-speed lateral stability and low-speed path following. The four-degree-of-freedom (4-DOF) single track dynamic model of the AHV with a front-wheel steered trailer is established. Considering that the road information at the driver’s focus is the most clear and those away from the focus blurred, a new kind controller based on the fractional calculus, i.e., a focus preview controller is designed to provide the steering input for the tractor to make it travel along the desired path. In addition, the active steering controllers based on the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) and single-point preview controller respectively are also proposed for the trailer. However, the latter is designed on the basis of the articulation angle between the tractor and trailer, inspired by the idea of the driver’s single-point preview controller. Finally, the single lane change maneuver and 90o turn maneuver are carried out. And the simulation results show that compared with the single-point preview controller, the new kind preview controller for the tractor can have good high speed maneuvering stability and low speed path tracking ability by adjusting the fractional order of the controller. On this basis, three different AHVs with the same tractor are simulated and the simulation results show that the AHV whose trailer adopts the single-point preview controller has better high-speed lateral stability and low-speed path tracking than the AHV whose trailer adopts the LQR controller.


2009 ◽  
Vol 16-19 ◽  
pp. 544-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Wen Zhou ◽  
Hai Shu Chen ◽  
Si Qi Zhang ◽  
Li Xin Guo

Rollover and jack-knifing of tractor semitrailer on high speed obstacle avoidance under emergency are serious threats for motorists. A tractor semitrailer model was built with multi-rigid-body method in this paper. The steering performance of tractor semitrailer has been analyzed, as well as the stability control theory, including yaw rate following, anti-rollover. The dynamics simulation for yaw rate following and anti-rollover has been performed on the dynamic tractor semitrailer. The results show that the vehicle dynamics control proposed in this paper can stabilize the tractor semitrailer, rollover and jack-knifing are prevented and the tractor semitrailer more accurately follows the driver's desired path.


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