Vehicle dynamics state estimation for vehicle operation at the limit of handling

Real-time estimation of the dynamic states of a vehicle, vehicle parameters, tyre-road friction and road angle estimation have the unquestionable ability to enhance the performance of vehicle control and safety systems. The aim of this project is to, firstly, go over the literature on vehicle dynamics estimation in order to have a comprehensive overview of the state-of-art. Secondly, an unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is chosen and implemented as a method to estimate the total vehicle velocity, the sideslip angle and the tyre-road friction potential. This sensor function technique is developed to work with a current car onboard sensor suite (accelerometer, gyroscope, steering wheel angle sensor, and wheel speed sensors). Along with the filter, a fourwheel dynamics vehicle model and the Magic Formula for the tyres are established. Finally, the filter is tested using simulated manoeuvres to check its accuracy and robustness