Model Based Vehicle Dynamics Control for Modern Vehicle Architectures

The central topic of this thesis is the development of a Vehicle Dynamics Controller suitable to multi-actuator vehicles. Starting with a review of Vehicle Dynamcis Control approaches employed in traditional vehicles and an identification of their drawbcks a new centralized Vehicle Dynamics Control structure is motivated. Based on this structure a multi-layer control architecture dividing the Vehicle Dynamics Control task into a high level contral task and a low level allocation task is developed. The design of two model based high level controllers is conducted and a comparative study is carried out to determine the best approach. The low level allocation problem, the coordination problem of the multitude of actuators arising with the introduction of multi-actuator vehicles, is outlined. Different allocation approaches are investigated and the most suitable algorithm is derived based on the specific allocation problem. The development of the low level control allocator is presented and the design of necessary state estimators is conducted. In addtion to the Vehicle Dynamics Controller design the thesis at hand investigates the relevance of tire-road characteristics in Vehicle Dynamics Control. The locations with Vehicle Dynamics Control where knowledge of tire-road characteristics is relevant are pointed out and an overview of tire-road characteristics estimation algorithms is provided. The investigation is concluded with the implementation of a selected approach. In the final part of the thesis evaluation experiments for the derived algorithms are introduced and the respective simulation results are presented and evaluated