Vehicle yaw stability control using rear active differential via Sliding mode control methods

The problem of vehicle yaw control is addressed in this paper using a rear active differential. The controller objective is to minimize the yaw-rate error and body slip-angle error of target values. A new Sliding mode controller is designed using a nonlinear 2DOF vehicle model and a sliding surface that integrates the vehicle yaw-rate error and slipangle error. Two control law approaches, namely, saturation control and saturation plus constant gain control where tested. Simulations performed using CarSim and Matlab/Simulink show robust stability in face of model uncertainties and superior performances of the saturation plus constant gain control.