Winter test of ABD steering robot

This report highlights the use of a steering robot with path-following for car testing in winter conditions. The steering robot was provided from Anthony Best Dynamics. Experiments have been made with a couple of commonly used test sequences (lane change, dual lane change, constant radius circle, handling), the result from these test are shown and discussed. The path-following algorithm gives steering commands to the car (replace the human driver), these commands affect how the car will move; hence, the car performance is affected by the behaviour of the path-following algorithm. The settings of the path-following algorithm greatly affect the car response in different situations. This is especially noticeable when the car starts to slide, a situation common when driving on a slippery winter road. The main focus for this report is to describe what happens when you push the path-following system to, and beyond, the physical limitations concerning road grip and vehicle speed. A theoretical analysis of the path-following algorithm and how it reacts on large lateral errors and high sideslip angles was done. As shown in the results, the evaluated path-following test sequences in general did work out well. Some characteristics of the algorithm, especially noticeable when driving in winter condition, were found and discussed. The overall impression is that the ABD steering robot with path-following can indeed be useful for repetitive test in winter conditions with bad road grip.Godkänd; 2013; 20130807 (hf)CASTT - Centre for Automotive Systems Technologies and Testin