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The research described in this paper aimed to study the cornering resistance and dissipation power on the tire contact patch, and to develop an efficient direct yaw moment control (DYC) during acceleration and deceleration while turning. A previously reported method [1], which formulates the cornering resistance in steady-state cornering, was extended to so-called quasi steady-state cornering that includes acceleration and deceleration while turning. Simulations revealed that the direct yaw moment reduces the dissipation power due to the load shift between the front and rear wheels. In addition, the optimum direct yaw moment cancels out the understeer augmented by acceleration. In contrast, anti-direct yaw moment optimizes the dissipation power during decelerating to maximize kinetic energy recovery. The optimization method proved that the optimum direct yaw moment can be achieved by equalizing the slip vectors of all the wheels.

Dynamic wind-tunnel tests of a simplified passenger car model were conducted using a two-degree-of-freedom model shaker. Time-resolved aerodynamic loads were derived from a built-in six-component balance and other sensors while the model underwent sinusoidal heaving and pitching motions at frequencies up to 8 Hz. The experimental results showed that frequency-dependent gains and phase differences between the model height/angle and the aerodynamic loads are in close agreement with those predicted by large-eddy simulation (LES) using an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method. Based on these findings, transient aerodynamic loads associated with lateral motions were also estimated by LES analysis. Based on the above results, a full-unsteady aerodynamic load model was then derived in the form of a linear transfer function. The force and moment fluctuations associated with the vertical and lateral motions are well described by the full-unsteady aerodynamic load model.

An understanding of human sensitivity is an important factor in enhancing vehicle dynamics. The purpose of this study was to evaluate human sensitivity to vehicle dynamics, especially visual and motion sensitivity. The first step of this study involved the development of a human sensitivity evaluation system composed of a highly responsive six-degree-of-freedom motion device and a visual device with high spatial frequency resolution. This system is able to apply sensory and visual information to a test subject corresponding to that experienced during driving. Perceptional characteristics with regard to single motions were evaluated using this system.

It is well known that the self-aligning torque decreases before lateral force is saturated. Focusing on this self-aligning torque change, an estimation method has been developed to detect the friction condition between steered wheels and road surface before the lateral force reaches the friction limit. The lateral grip margin (LGM) is defined based on the self-aligning torque change, which is obtained using the EPS torque and motor current information. The LGM is theoretically analyzed based on the tire model and experimentally verified through the full-scale vehicle test. Moreover, the estimated LGM is applied for the chassis control systems to improve the vehicle dynamics performance.

In this paper, a friction estimation method using a tire vibration model is proposed. It is based on the frequency characteristics of the wheel speed vibration which are related to the tire-road friction. The recursive least squares and the instrumental variable method are applied for online estimation. The experimental result shows that the proposed method applied to free rolling tire detects friction change from dry asphalt to iced road at constant speed without braking, accelerating or cornering.

This paper deals with a case where H∞ control is applied to a basic control logic of a rack-assisted Electric Power Steering (EPS) system. In the body, the following three key features are described: Construction of the target controlled model including a vehicle Controller design for the model H∞ controller performance verification In this paper, it has been confirmed that H∞ control is valid as a basic control logic for the EPS system.