VEHICLE DYNAMICS CONTROL WITH ROLLOVER PREVENTION FOR ARTICULATED HEAVY TRUCKS

Rollover and jack-knifing of articulated heavy trucks are serious threats for motorists. Active safety technologies have been demonstrated to have potential to reduce or prevent the occurrence of these types of accidents. The Vehicle Dynamics Control (VDC) system utilizes differential braking to affect vehicle response and has been shown to be quite effective in controlling vehicle yaw response. In this paper, a VDC system that improves yaw, lateral, and roll stability is presented. The objectives of this VDC design are to prevent or reduce the likelihood of rollover and jackknifing and to make the vehicle more closely follow the driver's intended path. A linear root locus study is performed to tune controller gains in a systematic fashion. Nonlinear dynamics simulations of a generic articulated heavy truck are run with the TruckSim and Matlab/Simulink software to study the performance of the proposed VDC algorithm. Human-in-the-loop driver models are used to obtain realistic steering inputs on predetermined test track. The simulation results of maneuvers utilizing these driver models, as well as maneuvers utilizing prescribed steering inputs, are presented. VDC is shown to stabilize the vehicle, rollover and jack-knifing are prevented and the vehicle more accurately follows the driver's intended path.