Active suspension, speed and steering control of vehicles using robotic formalism

In this paper a novel method was presented for the multi-body modeling of double-track ground vehicles based on Appell formalism. Kinematic constraints were introduced in form of Lagrange-multipliers that assure zero vertical accelerations at the wheel/ground contact points. A fictitious control system was used to find some non-available parts of the reference signals. Based on the constrained dynamic model PID-type active suspension, speed and steering control algorithms were elaborated satisfying easily adjustable error dynamics in closed loop. A complex vehicle and control system architecture was presented whose efficiency was demonstrated both for separated motions and composite ones with overlapping accelerating/steering maneuvers. High precision of all developed control methods was demonstrated in realistic vehicle motion maneuvers.