Vehicle yaw motion control based on front-wheel lateral force tracking

This paper presents a vehicle yaw motion control scheme based on the front-wheel lateral force tracking method. The proposed control scheme consists of a yaw rate controller, an active front steering (AFS) controller, and a tire force estimator. The yaw rate controller calculates the front-wheel yaw moment that is required for the vehicle to follow the reference yaw rate. Then the desired front-wheel yaw moment is converted to the front lateral tire force command and sent to the AFS controller. The AFS controller acquires tire force feedback from the tire force estimator, and compensates for the nonlinearity and uncertainties of the tire dynamics, as well as variations of road conditions to accurately and robustly track the force command from the yaw rate controller. In case that the desired lateral tire force exceeds its physical limit, the AFS controller turns to stabilize the tire slip angle, instead of following the unachievable force command, to prevent the vehicle from skidding. Simulations are carried out and the results verify the satisfactory performance of the proposed control scheme.