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AbstractIn the development of active/passive roll control systems, a vehicle model that can represent realistic roll behavior is
essential for predicting the impending rollover and for accurately
applying the control force to avoid vehicle rollover. The vehicle
roll center is a key parameter that influences the vehicle roll
dynamics. Since the roll center movement becomes important
as the vehicle roll angle increases, it is desirable to include this
effect in the roll-control system. This paper proposes a dynamic
roll stability indicator (RSI) incorporating roll-center movement
that generates rollover threshold in terms of lateral acceleration.
A robust parameter identification algorithm using a disturbance
observer is designed to estimate the lateral and vertical roll-center
movements. These estimates are later used in the RSI to update
the rollover threshold. The effectiveness of the proposed method
is demonstrated through simulations, and its performance is compared with other rollover warning algorithms.
Index TermsRoll-center movements, roll-stability indicator
(RSI), rollover.
I. I NTRODUCTION
EHICLE rollover crashes are the leading cause of fatalities on U.S. highways. According to statistics [1], nearly
33% of all deaths from passenger vehicle crashes result from
rollovers. Due to the high fatality rate of rollover crashes, the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has
established a rollover resistance rating test as part of its New
Car Assessment Program for passenger vehicles, including
sport utility vehicles (SUVs) [2], [3].
In recent years, reducing the vehicle rollover propensity to
improve occupant safety has become an active research area.
These efforts have produced two basic types of safety systems:
passive (e.g., curve speed warning systems) and active (e.g.,
electronic stability control). Many passive warning systems
use a prediction algorithm to determine the risk of impending rollover using vehicle or axle roll angles and/or lateral
acceleration as inputs. They provide some type of warning
so that the driver can take corrective action. For instance, the
static stability factor (SSF) is the simplest steady-state stability
indicator used for the prediction of vehicle rollover [2]. This
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Fig. 2. Roll response of the fixed and the moving roll center model.
Fig. 1.
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Fig. 4.
= (ms ay cos ms g sin ) hcg,s hfrc
+ (ms ay sin + ms g cos ) hcg,s hfrc tan f (1)
cm
m + K m
(4)
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B. Parameter-Estimation Algorithm
This section introduces a robust parameter-estimation algorithm to identify the unknown parameters shown in the
regression form of (5). Note that model uncertainties, such
as disturbances, unmodeled dynamics, and parameter perturbations, are not considered in the regression form. Estimation
performance and robustness may be improved by accounting
for such uncertainties in the model. This may be done by
modifying (5) to include a lumped disturbance term as follows:
(8)
(t) = (t 1) + P (t)(t)
ns
(9)
1
1
P (t) =
P (t 1) P (t 1)(t)
ns
1 T
(t)P (t 1)
I + T (t)P (t 1)(t)
(t) = Q(z)
1)
Y (t) (t)(t
ns
T
Y = cf ( f m ) + Kf (ms ay sin + ms g cos )(hcg,s hfrc ) (f m )
=
m
m
hrc
= K
c
(10)
(11)
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where (t),
P (t), and (t) denote the estimated parameter
vector, the covariance matrix, and the estimated disturbance,
respectively. The parameter represents the forgetting factor
that is set between 0 and 1. The scalar ns for the normalization
is defined as ns = 1 + T P [25]. The filter Q(z) dominating the robust performance is designed as a first-order lowpass filter in this paper. The RLSDA with normalization can
increase the robustness and the estimation performance against
the lumped disturbance that estimates the roll-center deviation
from nominal.
(12)
(13)
where Frc,y and Frc,z denote the reaction forces at the roll
center, and ms are the road bank angle and the sprung
mass, respectively, and ay represents the lateral acceleration.
Summing moments about the roll center for the sprung mass
and about the outer tire contact point yield
(14)
(16)
(17)
(18)
ay
ay
cos sin hcg,s =
sin + cos
g
g
((cw /2 crc ) (hcg,s hrc ) tan ) . (21)
t
ay
e + 2h
=
t
g
1 e 2h
(22)
with
e = tan
t = cw 2crc 2(hcg,s hrc ) tan
h = hcg,s
where e, t , and h are defined as the modified superelevation,
the modified track width, and the modified center of gravity
height, respectively.
Equation (22) implies that the RSI depends on the location
of the roll center, the height of the vehicle center of gravity,
and the roll angle. This indicator is dynamic in the sense that
it changes as a vehicle rolls. The level of this indicator can
determine the impending vehicle rollover. If the value of the
lateral acceleration is larger than that of the indicator, then
vehicle rollover is imminent.
To determine an accurate value for the RSI, it is desirable
to incorporate the roll center movement, which is either calculated or estimated from other vehicle outputs. The indicator of
(22) depends on the true roll center parameters crc and hrc .
Equation (22) may be rewritten to incorporate estimates of
these parameters obtained using the modified RLSDA and (6)
as follows:
t
ay
e + 2h
=
t
g
1 e 2h
(23)
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TABLE I
VEHICLE PARAMETERS
with
e = tan
rc tan
crc 2 hcg,s hfrc h
t = cw 2
h = hcg,s
rc denote the estimated parameters of crc
where crc and h
and hrc , respectively. This proposed indicator requires the
quantities of the road bank angle and the roll angle, which may
be measured from sensors or estimated by observers. In this
paper, it is assumed that the roll angle is obtained from a roll
angle sensor.
V. S IMULATION
In this section, the proposed RSI is evaluated through simulations. A large SUV model in CarSim with nonlinear suspension
stiffness and damping is used as a full vehicle model. The
vehicle parameters for this model are shown in Table I.
A. No Rollover Case
First, for the case where there is no rollover, a J-turn
maneuver is simulated on a road with zero bank angle at
the initial speed of 45 km/h and the steering wheel angle
of 360 (the steering gear ratio is 20). The steering wheel
angle, the lateral acceleration, and the roll behavior in this case
are illustrated in Fig. 5. As shown in this figure, the lateral
acceleration remains below 0.8 g, the steady-state roll angle
stays around 6 , and the roll rate converges to zero, which
is a normal driving condition that does not induce vehicle
rollover.
Fig. 6 shows the estimated vertical and lateral movements of
the roll center during this maneuver. As shown in Fig. 6, the
estimation algorithm works fairly well. The true value of the
roll center height is calculated from the lateral load transfer
through the links divided by the net tire lateral force and
multiplied by the track width as follows [15]:
hrc =
FTL
cw
Fy
(24)
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in Fig. 9, the lateral acceleration falls to zero, and the roll angle
and the roll rate are increasing as the vehicle rolls over.
Using the proposed RSI, the roll stability boundary can be
determined, as shown in Fig. 10. Starting from the initial point
of (0, 0), the vehicle motion crosses over the line of the RSI and
later the line of the SSF. The values of the lateral acceleration
when it crosses these lines are 0.72 and 0.81 g, respectively,
which means that the critical lateral acceleration value for the
RSI is smaller than that of the SSF. The RSI gives the rollover
warning signal earlier than the SSF, which means that the driver
or the controller has enough time to act to prevent vehicle
rollover. The figure also indicates the time of the two-wheel
liftoff, which is later than that of the RSI and earlier than that
of the SSF in this paper.
2) J-Turn Maneuver on a Nonzero Bank Angle Road: In
this maneuver, a vehicle runs on a circular road with 8% bank
and a radius of 500 ft. The simulation is conducted in a J-turn
maneuver, where an initial speed and the final steering wheel
angle are set to be 110 km/h and 200 , respectively. For this
case, the height of the sprung mass center of gravity is assumed
Fig. 12. Roll stability boundary (J-turn on a banked road, rollover case).
to be 1100 mm to make the vehicle roll over easily. The resulting roll angle, roll rate, and lateral acceleration are illustrated
in Fig. 11. This figure shows that the roll angle and the roll
rate increase, whereas the lateral acceleration goes to zero, as a
vehicle rolls over. In this simulation, the two-wheel liftoff occurs near when the lateral acceleration and the roll angle reach
around 0.78 g and 2.2 , respectively.
The performance of the proposed RSI is evaluated and illustrated in Fig. 12, where the vehicle motion starts at some initial
condition and crosses over the line of the RSI as the lateral
acceleration and the roll angle are increased. The proposed
indicator threshold was exceeded just prior to the time of twowheel liftoff. This shows that the proposed rollover warning
indicator works quite well in predicting vehicle rollover for
the case when a vehicle runs on a curved road with a bank
angle.
3) Fishhook Maneuver: A fishhook maneuver, i.e., the
NHTSA Fishhook 1a, is conducted with the initial speed of
88 km/h. Here, the road bank angle is assumed to be zero. The
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Fig. 13. Input and vehicle outputs in a fishhook maneuver (rollover case).
NHTSA Fishhook 1a is one of the standard rollover maneuvers conducted by the NHTSA. The handwheel magnitude is
calculated by multiplying the handwheel angle that produced
an average of 0.3 g in the slowly increasing steer maneuver
at 50 mi/h by the scalar 6.5. The commanded dwell time is
250 ms, and the handwheel rates of the initial steer and countersteer ramps are 720 /s. The steering wheel angle, the lateral
acceleration, the roll angle, and the roll rate are illustrated in
Fig. 13, which shows vehicle rollover. The roll angle and the
roll rate increase as the two right wheels lift off the ground as
the vehicle rolls over.
Hereafter, the proposed RSI is compared with the lateral
LTR, which is calculated from the vertical load at each wheel.
To compare the two indicators, the proposed RSI is normalized
by the current lateral acceleration divided by the critical threshold, as described by
ay
if |ay | < |ay |
,
(25)
RSI = |ay |
1, else
where ay and ay denote the current lateral acceleration and
the critical lateral acceleration of (23), respectively. The value
of 1 indicates that rollover is impending. The lateral LTR is
defined as [8]
LTR :=
Fzr Fzl
Fzr + Fzl
(26)
where Fzr and Fzl denote the total vertical loads at the right
and left wheels, respectively. The value of the LTR varies from
0 for no lateral load transfer to 1 when the two wheels lift
off. These two indicators are compared in Fig. 14. It suggests
that the proposed indicator works quite well in predicting
the impending vehicle rollover, showing a similar output to
the LTR.
In addition, the performance of the RSI is compared with
those of the other existing rollover warning algorithms such
as the dynamic stability indicator, an energy-based measure,
and a rollover index based on time-to-wheel lift. The dynamic
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Ixxs
ay
+
g
mghcg
(27)
Ecrit Eroll
Ecrit
(28)
where Eroll and Ecrit denote the total energy in the roll moment
and the total energy at the critical situation, respectively. The
total energy Eroll is determined from the sum of the potential
energy and the kinetic energy. The critical energy Ecrit is
obtained from Eroll when two wheels lift off.
A rollover index based on the time-to-wheel lift [14] is
calculated from the roll angleroll rate phase plane analysis,
a predefined wheel lift threshold, and the current lateral acceleration. In detail, the index is a function of the present roll
angle, roll rate, lateral acceleration, and each threshold value as
follows [14]:
th ) + c2 f (ay , ay,th ) + c3 f (, )
(29)
RI := c1 f (, th , ,
where c1 , c2 , and c3 are the weighting factors among the three
factors, and th , th , and ay,th denote the thresholds in the roll
angle, roll rate, and lateral acceleration, respectively. Here, the
values of the weight factors are significant in indicating the
danger of vehicle rollover, and in this paper, the factors are
selected for the best performance by trial and error.
Fig. 15 shows the phase planes between the roll angle
and the roll rate and between the roll angle and the lateral
acceleration, where each indicator is compared. In this figure,
WLO, OWLO, RI, RSI, TWLO, and DSI indicate the energybased measure (WWLO ), the one-axle-based LTR, the rollover
index based on the time-to-wheel lift, the proposed indicator,
the two-axle-based LTR, and the dynamic stability indicator,
Fig. 15. Comparison of the rollover warning time (fishhook maneuver). (a)
Roll angle versus roll rate. (b) Roll angle versus roll rate.
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Jamie Gertsch received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University,
Provo, UT, in 1998 and the M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at
Davis in 2000.
His research interests include the application of
modeling and simulation to ground vehicles to
achieve improvements in vehicle dynamics and mobility and modeling whole system performance to
facilitate design tradeoffs.