Road Friction Estimation

IVSS Project Report

Authors: M. Andersson, F. Bruzelius, J. Casselgren, M. Gfvert, M. Hjort, J. Hultn, F. Hbring, M. Klomp, G. Olsson, M. Sjdahl, J. Svendenius, S. Woxneryd, B. Wlivaara Contact person: G. Olsson, Saab Automobile AB Reference number: 2004:17750 Publication date: 2007-06-08

The IVSS Programme

The IVSS programme was set up to stimulate research and development for the road safety of the future. The end result will probably be new, smart technologies and new IT systems that will help reduce the number of traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries. IVSS projects shall meet the following three criteria: road safety, economic growth and commercially marketable technical systems.

Injury prevention Crash avoidance

IVSS

Business growth

on a global market

Product excellence Premium requirements Cost

Three interacting components - for better safety, growth and competitiveness: The human being Preventive solutions based on the vehicles most important component. The road Intelligent systems designed to increase security for all road users. The vehicle Active safety through pro-active technology.

Abstract
This project is part of the Swedish IVSS program. The aim of IVSS is to stimulate research and development for the road safety of the future. Road conditions with low friction have been identified as a frequent cause of traffic accidents. Therefore, technology to automatically detect changes in road conditions and alert the driver or take proper actions with active driver support systems would be a key contribution to increased road safety. The aim of this project was to investigate the possibilities to estimate the tire to road friction. Three different approaches have been developed and evaluated, from concept to early prototypes in test vehicles. In the first method, the estimation of the coefficient of friction is based on the forces and torques that are produced at the front tires at cornering maneuvers. The second method is based on a physical model of the tire behavior and estimates road friction from information on the forces that are produced at straight driving. The third method is based on an optical sensor that classifies the road surface ahead of the vehicle. The three methods have been successfully evaluated in proving ground and public road tests in summer and winter conditions with different tires, and have been compared with reference measurements. The conclusion is that all three methods can be used for tire to road friction estimation and are recommended for further development and industrialization.

Contents
1 Background ........................................................................................................................ 5 1.1 1.2 2 3 General problem description ...................................................................................... 5 Previous work............................................................................................................. 6

Objectives and Project Scope............................................................................................. 7 Force-Sensor Based Friction Estimation............................................................................ 8 3.1 3.2 3.3 Approach .................................................................................................................... 8 Results ........................................................................................................................ 9 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 10 Approach .................................................................................................................. 10 Results ...................................................................................................................... 11 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 11 Approach .................................................................................................................. 12 Results ...................................................................................................................... 12 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 13 Specific tests............................................................................................................. 14 Public road tests ....................................................................................................... 15 Future work .............................................................................................................. 16

Model-Based Friction Estimation .................................................................................... 10 4.1 4.2 4.3

Preview-Based Friction Estimation.................................................................................. 11 5.1 5.2 5.3

Experimental Validation .................................................................................................. 14 6.1 6.2

7 8 9

Conclusions and Recommendations................................................................................. 16 7.1 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 17 Publications ...................................................................................................................... 17 9.1 9.2 9.3 Public........................................................................................................................ 17 Internal ..................................................................................................................... 17 Patents ...................................................................................................................... 18 References .................................................................................................................... 18

10

1 Background
Many traffic-safety related investigations prove a correlation between the road condition and the number of accidents. In, for example, [1] it has been shown that the risk for accidents dramatically increases at slippery surfaces. An internal study at Volvo Cars claims that 15 % of all accidents occur owing to low tire-to-road friction. Monitoring of the road conditions is, among vehicle manufacturers, seen as an increasingly important element to support traffic safety. Knowing the friction value of tire-road interaction it is possible to improve the traffic safety in several ways, where some examples are: 1. Enhancement of active safety systems of the vehicle. This includes improved performance of systems such as anti-lock braking system (ABS) and electronic stability control (ESC), but also enables new functions such as adaptive following distance in ACC and automatic speed adaptation. 2. Driver warning systems based on the internal friction estimation or broadcasted from other vehicles and/or traffic information centers. 3. Enhanced road maintenance by communication of estimated friction value to the road authorities. 4. Enable the possibilities to; for example, decide speed limits on intelligent roads with variable speed on actual road friction condition. Much industrial and academic research is concentrated on friction estimation, but still no satisfactory working method has been presented. It is of strategic and competitive reasons a great benefit for a company to be able to show a well working road friction estimator.

1.1 General problem description

The tire-to-road friction value, , can be described as the maximum horizontal force normalized by the vertical force that can be produced between each tire of the vehicle and the road. As such, the friction imposes a limitation on the force that can be produced by steering, braking, and throttling and is of critical importance to the ability to stabilize the vehicle along a desired path. This limitation can be illustrated by the friction circle, where the radius of the circle represents the -value, see Figure 1. During acceleration or braking a force is produced along the vertical axis, during cornering along the horizontal axis, and at combined braking/acceleration and cornering along a direction between the axes. At normal driving the frictional force is not fully utilized and the developed tire force will be somewhere in the interior of the circle. When a force is produced by a tire, a relative motion arises between the tire structure and the road. This relative motion is referred to as tire slip. The relation between the tire slip and the resulting tire force depends on many factors and contains information about the available friction. A typical example of a slip-force relation is shown in Figure 2. Presence of slip or force is referred to as excitation of the tire-road friction contact. When the tire is exposed to excitation with high utilization, beyond the point corresponding to the maximum available friction force, the tire is sliding and the resulting tire force directly corresponds to the friction coefficient. For lower utilization, the available friction may be extracted from a model of the tire behavior which is a much more difficult task. Without excitation, the friction characteristics cannot be measured directly.

Figure 1 Friction circle showing available frictional force in any sliding direction of the tire.

Figure 2 Example of a slip-force curve. The inclination at the origin (red line) is referred to as the braking/cornering stiffness. The road friction is the maximum relative force.

In general, methods to estimate tire-road friction can be classified into two groups:

1.1.1 Direct methods

Direct methods require excitation and are based on accurate information on the force and motion in the tire-road contact in combination with a model of the friction influence.

1.1.2 Indirect methods

Indirect methods are typically based on algorithms that as a first step classify the road surface based on some type of measurement. The identified road surface is then mapped to a friction value using a look-up table or database. Indirect methods require that all relevant types of surfaces are known in advance and stored in the database, and that enough information is available from sensors to distinguish between them. A potential advantage with indirect methods is that friction may be detected on spots ahead of the vehicle and that estimates may be produced without excitation.

1.2 Previous work

The importance of on-vehicle road friction estimation is generally observed and there is a large collection of previous attempts to develop methods reported in patents and scientific articles worldwide, see [h]. The few systems that have found their way to production vehicles are direct methods characterized by either low accuracy and slow convergence, which makes them more of a season detection system, or only functional at very high or full friction utilization like ABS or ESC intervention. Estimation functions aimed at higher availability and accuracy have been proposed that are based on a variety of methods, but no solution exists up to date.

1.2.1 Direct methods

A typical approach is to extract information from wheel-speed measurements at braking or throttling excitation, or from chassis motion sensors (rate gyro, accelerometers) at cornering excitation. This has the advantage of low cost since these sensors are already available on the vehicle. These methods may be enhanced by additional sensors such as force sensors in the wheel hubs or steering rack. Common problems with suggested direct methods are low accuracy of measured signals, expensive additional sensors, or insufficient algorithms to derive the friction value from measurements.

One semi-direct approach that has attracted some attention is to directly estimate the tire stiffness, i.e. the inclination of the slip-force at the origin as shown in Figure 2. This value is then used to distinguish between different road conditions indirectly. However, the tire stiffness depends on many factors and a generic relation to the friction coefficient is likely hard to obtain. Tire companies are currently pushing technology for sensors embedded in the tires. These can be force sensors embedded in the carcass, or optical sensors that measure the tire deformation in the road contact. These sensors may potentially be used in both direct and indirect methods. For example, by measuring horizontal and vertical stress in the tire tread in the sliding parts of contact patch, the friction can be derived. This approach still has problems with sensor accuracy as well as many problems concerning power supply and communication when mounting a sensor in the tire.

1.2.2 Indirect methods

Some suggested indirect methods are based on surface classification from the noise characteristics of the wheel-speed sensor signals. Another approach is to use optical sensors to detect surface properties correlated with friction. Some attempts have been made to classify the road surface by the sound of the tire-road contact using acoustic sensors, but there are problems in separating information from the surrounding noise. Typical problems with indirect methods are immature or expensive sensor technology, low signal-to-noise ratio of measured entities, or insufficient correlation of measured entities with the friction value.

2 Objectives and Project Scope

The objectives of the project have been to investigate systems and algorithms for online invehicle tire to road-surface friction estimation. The focus of the project has been to investigate the achievable performance of the friction estimation for the chosen technology. The overall project objectives can be summarized as follows. To investigate different technologies for online in-vehicle tire to road friction estimation. Select promising methods and technologies and develop corresponding algorithms. Evaluate selected concepts with respect to accuracy, sensitivity, response time, and availability using demonstrators in field studies. Propose one or a combination of technologies for further development within the vehicle industry.

The project has involved wide range of partners from the vehicle industry as well as from institutes and universities: Saab Automobile AB (SAAB), Project coordinator Volvo Technology AB (Volvo) Volvo Car Corporation (VCC) Haldex Brake Products AB (Haldex) Lule Technical University (LTU) Swedish Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)

The work has been organized into three subprojects, dealing with different technologies. 1. Force sensor based friction estimation using cornering excitation ( SAAB) 2. Model based friction estimation using accelerator excitation (VCC and Haldex) 3. Preview, optical sensing (Volvo and LTU)

Subproject 1 and 2 are based on direct methods that use forces generated at the contact between the tire and the road to estimate the available friction. Subproject 1 has focused on the lateral forces generated at cornering while subproject 2 has focused on longitudinal forces generated at vehicle acceleration. Subproject 3 is based on an indirect method that uses optical sensors to classify the road surface. The coverage of the different methods is illustrated in Figure 3. VTI has been performing measurements of tire characteristics for development of a tire model used in the project and reference measurements at test drives with the subprojects demonstrators.

Figure 3 Coverage of the three subprojects

3 Force-Sensor Based Friction Estimation

Subproject 1 deals with the problem of estimating the road friction when there is an M excitation in the lateral direction. The estimation is partly based on measuring the F 40 4000 self aligning torque of the front tire. When a tire is subjected to lateral forces, an additional torque around the tires vertical 20 2000 axis is generated; the so-called self-aligning torque. This self-aligning torque has the property that it saturates much earlier than the lateral force as can be seen from Figure 0 0 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 4. The relation between the self-aligning Sl ip Angle, [rad] torque and the tire force discussed in [2] and Figure 4 Self-aligning Torque and Lateral Force [3] is used to estimate the friction versus tire Slip Angle coefficient. The objective of this sub-project was to evaluate which force-sensing concepts could be employed to measure the self-aligning torque and how well this would correlate to the tire to road friction value. The second objective was to develop and evaluate a lateral force based algorithm for road friction estimation, utilizing the selected force sensing concept
60 6000
Z

Self-aligning Torque, M Z [Nm]

3.1 Approach
The test vehicle in Project 1 is a Saab 9-3 2.0t equipped with a dSPACE MicroAutoBox for rapid prototyping as shown in Figure 6. Apart from the standard ESC sensors, Figure 5 shows three different force sensor concepts, used to estimate the self-aligning torque, which were evaluated: 1. Steering wheel torque sensor + hydraulic power steering with pressure sensors 2. Strain gauges (left and right tie rod) 3. Wheel force transducers

Lat eral Force, FY [N]

The least complex and costly solution is the steering gear sensor solution. Improved performance at a higher cost is expected from the two other solutions. Principally a sensor close to the wheel centre should be ideal from performance point of view, since it is close to the tire to road contact patch. For the other two concepts the forces has to be transmitted through joints and other components containing friction and inertia, potentially distorting the force information The lateral forced based algorithm studied in this project is based on self-aligning torque measurements, as previously mentioned.
Yaw rate Steering angle Lateral acc. Wheel speeds

3 2

1 2

3
Steering wheel torque EBCM signals HPS Oil pressure Tie rod forces MABX Longitudinal acc.

Figure 5 Sensor concepts evaluated for measuring the self-aligning torque

Figure 6 Experimental setup for the self-aligning torque based road friction estimation.

Furthermore, a parameter identification algorithm based on the response to lateral jerk (the rate of change of the lateral acceleration) is used to generate a continuous estimate of the friction. The self-aligning torque algorithm will, when active, correct this continuous estimate if necessary. This algorithm is described in [4] and its application in [5]. As shown, the test vehicle was also equipped with a longitudinal accelerometer, but is not used for the algorithms that are within the scope of this project.

3.2 Results
The sensor evaluation was performed on dry as well as slippery surfaces. The steering gear sensor concept showed good correlation with the wheel force transducers which were used as reference. This concept produces Road Friction Estimate (mue) a robust signal, however, with 1 mue_min 0.8 mue_max less sensitivity to detect low mue 0.6 Asphalt forces. The tie-rod sensor concept 0.4 on the other hand is sensitive to 0.2 low forces but showed less 0 robustness with the tested 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Time [s] prototype. The steering gear Absolute Value of the Lateral Acceleration [g] sensor was selected for the 0.5 abs(Ay) further algorithm evaluation. Asphalt 0.4
0.3

Final validation tests of the algorithms were performed in 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Time [s] Arjeplog in March 2007. In Figure 7 the results from one of Figure 7 Results from a slalom manoeuvre across snow, asphalt the tests on well defined surfaces and ice at 40 km/h. The black curve indicates when the vehicle is are presented. Since the selfdriven on asphalt. aligning torque based road friction estimation requires lateral forces, the test is a slalom maneuver at constant speed
0.1

0.2

across three different types of surfaces, snow, asphalt and ice at 40 km/h. The black curve indicates when the vehicle is on asphalt, i.e. to the left of the black curve there is snow and to the right there is ice. These and other results indicate that the sensitivity of using the steering gear as a force sensing device requires a lateral acceleration of around 0.3g before a reliable estimate of the friction is obtained from this algorithm. This means that asphalt is detected at around 30% utilization (relative to the available friction), snow between 60-80%. In order to detect ice, a utilization of nearly 100% is required. Naturally, in cases where the vehicle is driven with lateral acceleration which is less than the sensitivity of the algorithm, the estimate can only be based on knowledge from the latest excitation.

3.3 Conclusions
By using few additional sensors, the steering gear was proven to be reliable as a force sensing device from which the self-aligning torque could be estimated. In vehicles equipped with electric assisted steering the steering forces can be evaluated without additional sensors. The algorithm employed could from this steering force information successfully estimate the road friction when the vehicle is cornering. Since cornering situations are essential for many active safety systems, such as ESC, their performance can be improved if knowing the road friction in situations where this algorithm is active. Future work should focus on improving the sensitivity of the force sensing devices in order to improve the sensitivity of the friction estimate on very slippery surfaces, such ice.

4 Model-Based Friction Estimation

The aim of this project is to estimate the tire to road friction for different types of tires as well as for different road conditions using only existing signals on a modern car using methods based on physical models. In this first phase, the scope is limited to operation at throttling excitation on a two wheel driven car at close to straight-line driving.

4.1 Approach
The approach used is to design the estimator with extensive use of physical models. The main benefit with algorithms based on physical models is that the necessary calibration effort can be kept small. Another benefit is that physical models are good tools to interpret and extract information from the sensor signals that are used in the algorithms. The model describing the behavior of the tire to road surface is a central item of the method and the well-known brush-model was used for this purpose. From the two parameters denoted as the tire stiffness and the coefficient of friction, the relation, visualized as the shape of the curve shown in Figure 2, is defined. An advantage gained by using this model is that the resulting estimator can be used to detect the tire stiffness as well as the friction coefficient. The tire stiffness is also a parameter of great importance for several active chassis functions. In addition to the tire model, a number of models describing various aspects of the vehicle were used. For example, a so called bicycle model for the planar chassis motion, a driveline model for torque estimation, and a dynamic load-transfer model. Based on the physical models, two alternative algorithms were designed: 1. An algorithm based on storing data points in the slip-force plane. These points are used to compute the tire stiffness and the tire to road friction by optimization. 2. An algorithm based on minimization of an error function over a finite parameter grid.

These two algorithms were equally promising and it was decided to proceed with both. The algorithms were first developed and tested off-line using vehicle data collected from extensive test drives. Then, the algorithms were implemented in prototype code and executed in real-time in a test vehicle. The test setup is shown in Figure 8, below.

Wheel speeds Estimated engine torque Etc.

Figure 8 The rapid prototyping computer, AutoBox, is connected to the vehicle CAN and listens to the relevant signals. The AutoBox also runs the estimator algorithms. The AutoBox can communicate with a laptop for tuning and monitoring purposes.

4.2 Results
The algorithms have been evaluated with data from proving ground tests for different surface types and transitions between surface types for summer, winter, and studded tires. The result is that both estimators are capable of detecting the tire to road friction with acceptable accuracy and availability. As for all direct methods, sufficient excitation is required in order to obtain a useful estimate. With the proposed algorithms, reliable estimation results are achieved instantly at acceleration when utilizing 20-50% of the available friction, depending on surface type and excitation form (ramp, step etc.). The algorithms can also offer a lower bound on the friction coefficient of twice the currently utilized friction, also when sufficient excitation is not present. Both algorithms automatically adapt to different types of tires without any need for calibration. The ability to quickly detect changes in road conditions at low excitation is a desired property of the estimators. Preliminary results indicate that the proposed methods can be used to detect changes in road conditions with very little excitation. More work is required to develop and evaluate this feature further.

4.3 Conclusions
By using methods based on physical modeling, it is possible to estimate the tire to road friction at relatively low utilization. The algorithms are model based and require little tuning. Currently, the algorithms are limited to straight-line driving, but extension to braking and light cornering conditions is possible. The goal for this subproject is met and it is desired to continue to develop the methods further.

5 Preview-Based Friction Estimation

The aim of Subproject 3 was to investigate technology for characterizing the road surface in front of the vehicle, in order to anticipate the coefficient of friction between tire and road.

5.1 Approach
Two candidate sensors were selected based on the requirements and findings in the introductory study. Both sensors are based on optical techniques measuring and analyzing infrared light that is reflected in the road surface ahead of the vehicle. The basic approach is to use sensors measuring infrared light at different wavelengths reflected from the road to discriminate between road surfaces that are dry, wet, icy, snowy, etc. From the classification of the road surface, a friction estimate is obtained from a table of predetermined friction coefficient values. The selected sensors were obtained and investigated in the laboratory at the LTU as well as in field tests, mounted in a Volvo Figure 9 Basic principle of the Road Eye sensor. truck. The field test setup was used for validation in winter conditions on prepared test tracks as well as on ordinary roads.

5.2 Results
Two prototype sensors were selected for further investigation and testing. One sensor, called Road Eye, was provided by Sten Lfving, Optical Sensors (see Figure 9). The other candidate, called Sensice, was provided by Sensice Innovation. In addition, a surface temperature sensor 450 from Control Products Inc. 400 was integrated in the vehicle 350 test setup. During the initial work with integration of the 300 sensors in the vehicle test 250 environment, the Sensice 200 sensor was not able to function properly in this 150 project and was therefore 100 not further pursued.
50 b11 b03 log name b02

meters

Figure 10 Classification of road surfaces. Same track identified during three different runs. Yellow indicates snow, red indicates ice, black indicates dry asphalt, blue indicates wet surface.

The laboratory tests performed by LTU have been reported in [a] and [b]. In summary, they showed that the Road Eye sensor is able to discriminate between a road surface that is dry, or covered with ice or with

snow. A road surface with water is more difficult to classify accurately. To compensate for this limitation, a modification is proposed to equip the sensor with one additional laser diode illuminating the road surface with a third wavelength. Figure 10 shows the result of a field test where the truck was run across a prepared road with well defined sections of snow, dry asphalt and ice. The sensor is able to consistently identify the surfaces. It is clear from the field tests that surfaces with well defined patches of ice, dry asphalt, and snow can be identified reasonably well. The estimated friction can then be given by a table either as the mid point or as a range of friction coefficient values. The friction table is based on previous published measurement results and it is not considering the tires of the actual vehicle. Figure 11 shows the results of a test run on an ordinary road, with a friction measurement device in one vehicle (the VTI Figure 11 Accuracy of the Road Eye based classification measurement vehicle) and method (below) compared to the friction coefficient measured followed by the Road Eye by VTI (above). The marks show when the estimation is within equipped truck. The road was (green circle) and outside (red cross) the lower and upper mostly covered with packed friction boundaries for the identified surface. snow, occasionally polished to ice, with some bare spots of dry or wet asphalt. This should be regarded as a difficult test and even though measured friction quite frequently is outside the range estimated with Road Eye, it seems that the road parts with slight higher and slightly lower friction numbers are identified reasonably well. From several test runs in winter conditions on prepared test tracks, like in Figure 10, and on ordinary roads, like in Figure 11, the average absolute error in the friction coefficient estimate, compared to the reference measurement, was found to be 0.08. For the same tests the hit rate, defined as the percentage of the estimates where the measured reference friction was within the friction range obtained from the Road Eye classification, was 60%. Because of the relatively low confidence in the preview friction estimate, the potential use of the Road Eye sensor may be in combination with one of the estimation methods investigated in the other sub projects.

5.3 Conclusions
The conclusion is that the investigated preview sensor technology can be further developed but should be combined with other techniques. Suggestions for further work are: Improve the sensor to better discriminate between water and ice. Investigate methods and potential for sensor fusion and integration with other friction estimation techniques.

Map future potential active safety and driving assistance functions in terms of their dependence on a friction estimate and their requirements for robustness and accuracy.

6 Experimental Validation
Common test expeditions were organized at four occasions during the project: Hllered 2005, Arjeplog 2006, Hllered 2006, Arjeplog 2007. The first two expeditions had the purpose of collecting data from a variety of road surfaces and tires to be used in the succeeding algorithm development [i]. Data was collected from the sub-project test vehicles and from the VTI BV12 mobile tire test-rig of Figure 12.

Figure 12 The VTI BV12 mobile tire test rig (left) and BV14 mobile road-surface test rig (right).

One important part was to verify the validity of the brush-model, which is the foundation of the force-sensor based and model-based methods. This was done successfully [e, f], and a typical result is shown in Figure 13 . The latter two expeditions had the main purpose of validating the developed algorithms. The final validation was carried out at Colmis test tracks in Arjeplog in March 2007. The friction was measured during specific tests on snow, ice, slush, and wet/dry asphalt surfaces on the test tracks, see Table 1. In addition, the test vehicles were also evaluated on public roads around Arjeplog. The VTI BV14 friction measurement vehicle was used to obtain reference measurements of the friction [j]. Note that the BV14 is equipped with ISO test tires that differ from the tires on the sub-project test vehicles. This means that also the friction differs and the measured and estimated values can only be compared relatively.

Figure 13 Example of data for the validation of the brush-model. The solid line shows the brush model and the five different markers show different measurements. The curve displays the force produced in the tire-road contact as a function of the tire slip. The model fits well to the measured data.

6.1 Specific tests

The specific tests were used for evaluating system performance on well defined surfaces, and during transitions between two well defined surfaces. Table 1 summarizes the friction

measurements on homogenous test surfaces. All three methods are able to distinguish between the different surfaces with acceptable accuracy. One exception is that the optical method misinterprets wet asphalt and underestimates the friction.
Table 1 Accuracy test. Friction values measured on specific surfaces. Subproject Snow Ice Asphalt Wet asphalt Slush 1 0.35 0.16 0.9 0.9 0.32 2 0.3 0.1 0.7-1.1 0.7-1.1 0.3 3 0.10-0.15 0-0.1 0.75 0.2-0.3 VTI 0.25 0.1 0.65-0.75 0.7 0.15-0.20

6.2 Public road tests

General system performance on real roads, with varying road conditions, was evaluated on 7 road sections and one snow prepared handling track. Testing on road sections was important, not only because they offered realistic road surface conditions, but also to obtain a natural distribution of curves, hills, and straight sections. One example is shown in Figure 14. The first part of this test road (95) consisted of dry asphalt and the second part, starting after a left turn, was covered by packed snow and with a combination of snow, ice and asphalt at the end.

Figure 14 Test road 95/Svanns, one of the road sections used for validation. The picture shows the left turn where the road surface changes character.

Figure 15 shows the estimated and measured friction values using the different methods. The optical method correlates quite well with the reference vehicle. The method of subproject 1 only gets sufficient excitation at the left turn at about 1400m, where it immediately identifies the correct friction. The methods of subproject 2 identifies the friction well on straight sections, but is disengaged in curve sections, such as at the transition to the snowy section. This test illustrates quite well how the different methods complement each other.

Road section 1: Colmis => Svans 1.4 1.2 Friction coefficient 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 500 1000 1500 Distance (m) 2000 2500 VTI Saab VTEC VCC1 VCC2

Figure 15 The measured friction values at test road 95/Svanns for VTI BV14 reference (black), subproject 1 (red), subproject 2 method 1 (blue) and method 2 (light blue), and subproject 3 (green). Note that the alignments of the different signals are approximate.

7 Conclusions and Recommendations

The aim of this project was to investigate the possibilities to estimate the tire to road friction. Indirect (pre-view sensor based) and direct (force-slip based) methods have been studied. The results from all three subprojects are successful with respect to the project goals and all methods are promising candidates for industrialization. The initial ideas in all three subprojects have been developed into functional prototypes that were validated under real conditions. The direct approaches, subproject 1 and 2, show that the tire to road coefficient of friction can be estimated. The availability of the estimate is sufficient enough to provide useful information to active safety functions. The friction can be estimated if there is enough force excitation. This fact limits the availability of the estimates to certain driving situations. The indirect pre-view approach, subproject 3, shows very promising result regarding availability of surface classification. Investigations suggest that the robustness of the classifications can be further enhanced by a modification of the present sensor. For the preview approach, vehicle integration and cost needs further investigation. This is not the case for the force based approaches as they take advantage of available resources in the vehicle. The outcome of the subprojects reveals great potential of the investigated technologies and the results will be used by the industrial partners as support functions to improve the performance of active safety functions. Improving active safety systems increases the competitiveness and will contribute to the business growth of the region. With the rapid development of active safety systems in road vehicles and the increased availability of electronics and software communication systems inside and outside the vehicles, it is clear that road friction estimation systems will have a major impact on traffic safety in the future. Therefore, further development of these technologies is highly needed.

7.1 Future work

The limited scope of the project implies that there are still several issues to be investigated and problems to be solved, and many new ideas have also emerged during the work. There are no identified fundamental obstacles with any of the methods and it is desired by all partners to continue the research and development and bring the technologies to the next level. For the force based approaches (subproject 1 and 2), the availability needs to be improved so that estimates are available at a larger set of driving conditions. The estimates need to be

complemented with confidence information to support active safety systems. To support this development there is a need for understanding the use cases and to develop proper validation methods and procedures. The optical method requires development steps regarding vehicle integration and cost. In addition, extensive analysis of different road surfaces is necessary. Therefore further development of this method is also highly recommended. From a society point of view, friction estimates that support the road infrastructure is of high interest. The infrastructure communication field has lately drawn a lot of attention, including the IVSS programme, and the possibilities are expanding. Road friction estimation and road conditioning monitoring in this context set new requirements that need to be investigated.

8 Acknowledgements
The project is to a great extent financed by IVSS. This financial support is gratefully acknowledged. Without IVSS, this project would likely not have been initiated. The IVSS project has not only resulted in several ways of estimating the tire to road friction, but also a fruitful network between several companies and universities

9 Publications
The project has lead to a series of publications of which some of them are public, some internal and some in the form of patent. The publications are listed below:

9.1 Public
[a] Casselgren, J., M. Sjdahl, M. Sanfridsson, and S. Woxneryd. Classification of road conditions to improve safety. In 11th International Forum on Advanced Microsystems for Automotive Applications, (AMAA), Berlin, Germany, 9-10 May 2007. [b] Casselgren, J., M. Sjdahl, and J. LeBlanc. Angular spectral response from covered asphalt. Applied Optics, Vol 46, No. 22, 2007 [c] Casselgren, J., Licentiate Thesis, to appear September 2007. [d] Svendenius, J. Tire Modeling and Friction Estimation. PhD thesis ISRN LUTFD2/TFRT1077SE. Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden, 2007. [e] Svendenius, J. Validation of the brush model towards VTI-measurement data recorded at Hllered 2005. Technical Report ISRN LUTFD2/TFRT7616SE. Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden, 2007. [f] Svendenius, J. Validation of the brush model towards VTI-measurement data recorded in Arjeplog 2006. Technical Report ISRN LUTFD2/TFRT7617SE. Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden, 2007.

9.2 Internal
[g] Hbring F. et. al, Force Sensor Based Friction Estimation, Saab report TICA-070009, May 2007. [h] Bruzelius, F., Hultn, J., Gfvert, M. and Svendenius, J, Model-based road friction estimation, IVSS-RFE internal report sub project 2, May 2007. [i] Hjort M., Experimental determination of tire friction properties, IVSS-RFE internal report, May 2007.

[j] Hjort M. and Wlivaara B., Validation of the IVSS-RFE test vehicles, IVSS-RFE internal report, June 2007. [k] Volvo Engineering Report ER-59214, May 2007.

9.3 Patents
[l] Bruzelius, F., Hultn, J., Gfvert, M. and Svendenius, J, Systems and methods for determining a parameter relating to a tire-to-road contact and/or relation between a wheel and a vehicle motion", Application no. 07004274.2-1523, March 2007.

10 References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Wallman, C.-G., Tema Vintermodell - Olycksrisker vid olika vintervglag, VTI notat 60-2001 Yasui, Y., Tanaka, W. et al., Estimation of Lateral Grip Margin Based on Self-aligning Torque for Vehicle Dynamics Enhancement, SAE Paper No. 2004-01-1070. Matsuno, K, Ekestrm, M., and le Grand, Ren, Method and system for road surface friction coefficient estimation, EP 1 760 451 A1 Matsuno, K Road friction coefficient estimating apparatus and vehicle equipped with road friction estimating apparatus, US 6 556 911 B2 Matsuno, K Driving torque distribution control system for vehicle and the method therof, US 5 742 917

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