Abstract:

This work concentrates on the use of easy to implement controller design to match the computing capacity of the low cost and low power embedded computing technologies available in current vehicles. The integrated control architecture is such that the lateral-tilt and longitudinal dynamics are controlled individually and then dynamic stability control of the vehicle platform is achieved by integrated stability. The major control objective of the integrated control strategy is to track the driver’s desired trajectory while maintaining the stability of NTTW vehicle under various operating conditions. In this thesis work, multivariable controllers for integrated vehicle dynamics have been proposed for achieving dynamic stability of NTTW vehicle platform. The multivariable aspect of the controller design aids in keeping the control structure simple and optimal and allows the usage of both the STC (steering tilt control) and DTC (direct tilt control) systems in a coordinated manner for lateral-tilt dynamics along with the longitudinal dynamics. The investigations were carried out by examining different control strategies consisting of basic classical control strategy (based on PID controller), optimal control strategy and sliding mode control strategy. Each controller is compared to find out the optimized active stability control strategy for NTTW vehicle. In addition, an observer based on EKF technique is designed to reconstruct the unmeasured state of lateral-tilt dynamics from the measured states. Finally, the most suitable robust controller is ascertained and thereafter validated through hardware-in-the-loop simulation.