A System Theoretic Analysis of Automotive Vehicle Dynamics and Control

SUMMARY This paper investigates vehicle dynamics and control from a systems theoretic perspective. Based on improved understanding of MIMO vehicle systems, a four-wheel-steering robust model following control strategy including a virtual vehicle model, a feed-forward internal model and a feedback element is proposed for improving the dynamic performance of the vehicle. The controller gain matrices are determined by a joint eigenstructure assignment and mixed-sensitivity H∞ control technique to satisfy both time- and frequency-domain specifications. The purpose is to improve disturbance rejection performance at low frequencies as well as to enhance robust stability against unstructured multiplicative output perturbations at high frequencies. The performance and robustness are assessed by numerical simulation.