Direct Virtual Sensor (DVS) design in vehicle sideslip angle estimation

The vehicle sideslip angle is one of the most important variable to evaluate vehicle stability during dynamic manoeuvres. In this paper a nonlinear estimator is proposed, which use measurements of lateral accleration, steering angle, yaw rate and longitudinal velocity as input signals and provide the sideslip angle estimate as output. The design of such an estimator is based on a recently proposed direct approach to the design of virtual sensor. The obtained estimator has been experimentally tested on a huge number of different manoeuvres showing quite good results in a large range of operation covering both the linear and the nonlinear behaviour of the car.