Comparison of Active Front Wheel Steering and Differential Braking for Yaw/Roll Stability Enhancement of a Coach 2018-01-0820

Both active front wheel steering (AFS) and differential braking control (DBC) can improve the vehicle handling and stability. In this article, an AFS strategy and a DBC strategy are proposed and compared. The strategies are as follows: A yaw instability judging module and a rollover instability judging module are put forward to determine whether the coach is in a linear state and whether the additional torque/angle module should be actuated. The additional torque module based on linear quadratic regulator (LQR) and the additional steering wheel angle module based on adaptive proportion integral differential (PID) fuzzy controller are designed to make the actual yaw rate and sideslip angle track the reference yaw rate and sideslip angle. Under some typical driving conditions such as sinusoidal, J-turning, crosswind, and straight-line brake maneuver on the μ-split road, simulation tests are carried out for the coach with no control, DBC strategy, and AFS control, respectively. The comprehensive comparison of simulation results is made to verify the effectiveness of proposed strategies on improving vehicle handling and yaw stability. Results also show that the proposed two strategies can effectively prevent rollover of the vehicle and each has its own strengths for different maneuvers.