Vehicle Dynamics Control for Rollover Prevention

Abstract: Vehicle rollover accidents are a particularly dangerous form of road accident. Existing vehicle dynamics controllers primarily deal with yaw stability, and are of limited use for dealing with problems of roll instability. This thesis deals with the development of a new type of vehicle dynamics control system, capable of preventing rollover accidents caused by extreme maneuvering. A control strategy based on limitation of the roll angle while following a yaw rate reference is presented. Methods for rollover detection are investigated. A new computationally–efficient control allocation strategy based on convex optimization is used to map the controller commands to the individual braking forces, taking into account actuator constraints. Simulations show that the strategy is capable of preventing rollover of a commercial van during various standard test maneuvers.