In recent years, there has been a push by automotive manufacturers to improve the efficiency of the vehicle development process. This can be accomplished by creating a computationally efficient vehicle model that has the capability of predicting the vehicle behavior in many different situations at a fast pace. This thesis presents a procedure to automatically generate the simulation code of vehicle systems rolling over three-dimensional (3-D) roads given a description of the model as input. The governing equations describing the vehicle can be formulated using either a numerical or symbolical formulation approach. A numerical approach will re-construct numerical matrices that describe the system at each time step. Whereas a symbolic approach will generate the governing equations that describe the system for all time. The latter method offers many advantages to obtaining the equations. They only have to be formulated once and can be simplified using symbolic simplification techniques, thus making the simulations more computationally efficient. The road model is automatically generated in the formulation stage based on the single elevation function (3-D mathematical function) that is used to represent the road. Symbolic algorithms are adopted to construct and optimize the non-linear equations that are required to determine the contact point. A Newton-Raphson iterative scheme is constructed around the optimized non-linear equations, so that they can be solved at each time step. The road is represented in tabular form when it can not be defined by a single elevation function. A simulation code structure was developed to incorporate the tire on a 3-D road in a symbolic computer implementation of vehicle systems. It was created so that the tire forces and moments that appear in the generalized force matrix can be evaluated during simulation and not during formulation. They are evaluated systematically by performing a number of procedure calls. A road model is first used to determine the contact point between the tire and the ground. Its location is used to calculate the tire intermediate variables, such as the camber angle, that are required by a tire model to evaluate the tire forces and moments. The structured simulation code was implemented in the DynaFlexPro software package by creating a linear graph representation of the tire and the road. DynaFlexPro was used to analyze a vehicle system on six different road profiles performing different braking and cornering maneuvers. The analyzes were repeated in MSC.ADAMS for validation purposes and good agreement was achieved between the two software packages. The results confirmed that the symbolic computing approach presented in this thesis is more computationally efficient than the purely numerical approach. Thus, the simulation code structure increases the versatility of vehicle models by permitting them to be analyzed on 3-D trajectories while remaining computationally efficient.

The objective of this thesis is to implement a basic, yet realistic, ESC system into the VTI simulator environment. This system is then validated to assure that it is working properly and provides a realistic behavior. The implemented ESC system is used in a study, where the ESC system could be turned on and off, to evaluate the benefits of an ESC system after a side impact. This study shows that an ESC system may aid the driver in such a critical situation when the driver is unaware that a side impact will occur. With the ESC system active no driver lost control while with the system inactive there were five drivers that lost control, but deviations in initial speed give statistical difficulties, thus more tests are needed. In the case where the driver knows that an impact will occur the ESC system showed to stabilize the automobile faster and it is shown that an expected improvement in stabilization time is between 40 to 62 percent. It was also seen during this part of the scenario that 2 percent loss of control occurred with an active ESC system and 45 percent without.

High precision state estimation is crucial when executing drift control and high speed control close to the stability limit, on electric RC scale cars. In this thesis the estimation is made possible through recursive Bayesian filtering; more precisely the Extended Kalman Filter. By modelling the dynamics of the car and using it together with position measurements and control input signals, it is possible to do state estimation and prediction with high accuracy even on non-measured states. Focus is on real-time, on-line, estimation of the so called slip angles of the front and rear tyres, because of their impact of the car’s behaviour. With the extended information given to the system controller, higher levels of controllability could be reached. This can be used not only for higher speeds and drift control, but also a possibility to study future anti-skid safety measures forground vehicles.

The purpose of this work is to investigate if simple vehicle models are realisticand useful in simulator environment. These simple models have been parametrisedby the Department of Electrical Engineering at Linköping University and havebeen validated with good results. The models have been implemented in a simulatorenvironment and a simulator study was made with 24 participants. Eachtest person drove both slalom and double lane change manoeuvres with the simplemodels and with VTI’s advanced model. The test persons were able to successfullycomplete double lane changes for higher velocities with the linear tyre modelcompared to both the non-linear tyre model and the advanced model. The wholestudy shows that aggressive driving of a simple vehicle model with non-linear tyredynamics is perceived to be quite similar to an advanced model. It is noted significantdifferences between the simple models and the advanced model when drivingunder normal circumstances, e.g. lack of motion cueing in the simple model suchas pitch and roll.

This master thesis deals with experimental data that were collected through a crash avoidance experiment (which was lead by Professor Lennart Strandberg) in February and March 1990. Fifty-two ordinary drivers were instructed to perform two different kinds of manoeuvres on ice to determine the effectiveness of antilock brakes and of four tyre configurations. Results were reported at the 1991 ESV Conference. The first aim of this master thesis is to check and revise the measured data (used by Prof. Strandberg in courses at Linköping University). Checking out many hours of video recordings from onboard cameras reveals various protocol inconsistencies and errors, which in some cases it is not possible to correct. This work might increase the reliability of any further analysis of these data. The second aim is to elaborate on the revised data and to test the hypothesis that quick steering is a key factor to not lose control of the car during a crash avoidance manoeuvre. Different variables are introduced and used to estimate the steering wheel velocity and lateral friction use. The results show linear (positive) correlations between lateral friction use and steering wheel velocity. The greatest steering wheel velocities appear in the tests with loss-of-control and reach values up to 1180 degrees per second. However, the 1990 experimental layout was not intended for this type of research questions and it seems difficult to determine the causal relationship between quick steering and control of the car. Some cases of excessive steering input might have occurred. The results indicate that quick steering by itself is not enough to guarantee the total control of the car. An early reaction to the skid might be necessary too. Evidently, further research is needed.

Information about dynamic tire properties has always been important for drivers of wheel driven vehicles. With the increasing amount of systems in modern vehicles designed to measure and control the behavior of the vehicle information regarding dynamic tire properties has grown even more important. In this thesis a number of methods for modeling and estimating dynamic tire properties have been implemented and evaluated. The more general issue of estimating model parameters in linear and non-linear vehicle models is also addressed. We conclude that the slope of the tire slip curve seems to dependent on the stiffness of the road surface and introduce the term combined stiffness. We also show that it is possible to estimate both longitudinal and lateral combined stiffness using only standard vehicle sensors.

In recent years, there has been a push by automotive manufacturers to improve the efficiency of the vehicle development process. This can be accomplished by creating a computationally efficient vehicle model that has the capability of predicting the vehicle behavior in many different situations at a fast pace. This thesis presents a procedure to automatically generate the simulation code of vehicle systems rolling over three-dimensional (3-D) roads given a description of the model as input. The governing equations describing the vehicle can be formulated using either a numerical or symbolical formulation approach. A numerical approach will re-construct numerical matrices that describe the system at each time step. Whereas a symbolic approach will generate the governing equations that describe the system for all time. The latter method offers many advantages to obtaining the equations. They only have to be formulated once and can be simplified using symbolic simplification techniques, thus making the simulations more computationally efficient. The road model is automatically generated in the formulation stage based on the single elevation function (3-D mathematical function) that is used to represent the road. Symbolic algorithms are adopted to construct and optimize the non-linear equations that are required to determine the contact point. A Newton-Raphson iterative scheme is constructed around the optimized non-linear equations, so that they can be solved at each time step. The road is represented in tabular form when it can not be defined by a single elevation function. A simulation code structure was developed to incorporate the tire on a 3-D road in a symbolic computer implementation of vehicle systems. It was created so that the tire forces and moments that appear in the generalized force matrix can be evaluated during simulation and not during formulation. They are evaluated systematically by performing a number of procedure calls. A road model is first used to determine the contact point between the tire and the ground. Its location is used to calculate the tire intermediate variables, such as the camber angle, that are required by a tire model to evaluate the tire forces and moments. The structured simulation code was implemented in the DynaFlexPro software package by creating a linear graph representation of the tire and the road. DynaFlexPro was used to analyze a vehicle system on six different road profiles performing different braking and cornering maneuvers. The analyzes were repeated in MSC.ADAMS for validation purposes and good agreement was achieved between the two software packages. The results confirmed that the symbolic computing approach presented in this thesis is more computationally efficient than the purely numerical approach. Thus, the simulation code structure increases the versatility of vehicle models by permitting them to be analyzed on 3-D trajectories while remaining computationally efficient.

The suspension system of a vehicle is conventionally designed such that the spring-damper element is configured in the vertical direction, and the longitudinal connection between the vehicle chassis and wheels is always very stiff compared to the vertical one. This mechanism can isolate vibrations and absorb shocks efficiently in the vertical direction but cannot attenuate the longitudinal impacts caused by road obstacles. In order to overcome such a limitation, a planar suspension system (PSS) is proposed. This novel vehicle suspension system has a longitudinal spring-damper strut between the vehicle chassis and wheel. The dynamic performance, including ride comfort, pitch dynamics, handling characteristics and total dynamic behaviour, of a mid-size passenger vehicle equipped with such planar suspension systems is thoroughly investigated and compared with those of a conventional vehicle. To facilitate this investigation, various number of vehicle models are developed considering the relative longitudinal motions of wheels with respect to the chassis. A 4-DOF quarter-car model is used to conduct a preliminary study of the ride quality, and a pitch plane half-car model is employed to investigate the pitch dynamics in both the frequency and time domain. A 5-DOF yaw plane single-track half-car model along with a pitch plane half-car model is proposed to carry out the handling performance study, and also an 18-DOF full-car model is used to perform total dynamics study. In addition to these mathematical models, virtual full-car models are constructed in Adams/car to validate the proposed mathematical models. For the sake of prediction of the tire-ground interaction force, a radial-spring tire model is modified by adding the tire damping to generate the road excitation forces due to road disturbances in the vertical and longitudinal directions. A dynamic 2D tire friction model based on the LuGre friction theory is modified to simulate the dynamic frictional interaction in the tire-ground contact pitch. The ride quality of a PSS vehicle is evaluated in accordance with the ISO 2631 and compared with that of a conventional vehicle. It is shown that the PSS system exhibits good potential to attenuate the impact and isolate the vibration due to road excitations in both the vertical and longitudinal directions, resulting in improved vehicles’ ride and comfort quality. The relatively soft longitudinal strut can absorb the longitudinal impact and, therefore, can protect the components. The investigation of handling performance including the steady-state handling characteristics, transient and frequency responses in various scenarios demonstrates that the PSS vehicle is directionally stable and generally has comparable handling behaviour to a similar conventional vehicle. The application of PSS in vehicles can enhance the understeer trend, i.e. the understeer becomes more understeer, neutral steer becomes slightly understeer, and oversteer becomes less oversteer. The total dynamic behaviour combining the bounce, pitch, roll and the longitudinal dynamics under various scenarios such as differential brake-in-turn and asymmetric obstacle traversing was thoroughly investigated. Simulation results illustrate that the PSS vehicle has a relatively small roll angle in a turning manoeuvre. In some cases such as passing road potholes, the PSS vehicle has a better directional stability.

The aim of this thesis is to develop a methodology for obtaining mass properties of a vehicle using specific test rig. Investigated mass properties are the mass, location of center of gravity and the inertia tensor. Accurate measurement of mass properties of vehicles is crucial for vehicle dynamics research. The test rig consists of a frame on which the vehicle is fixed and which is suspended from the ceiling of the laboratory using steel cables. Mass and location of center of gravity are measured using the data from the test rig in equilibrium position and basic static equations. Inertia tensor is measured using the data from dynamical response of the system. For this purpose an identification routine which employs prediction error method is developed using the built&ndash / in functions from the System Identification Toolbox of MATLAB&reg / . The experiment was also simulated using Simmechanics Toolbox of MATLAB&reg / . Identification code is verified using the results of the experiment simulations for various cases.

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