Real-time Networked Predictive Control of a Vehicle Drivetrain with Backlash

The goal of this paper is to provide a control design methodology that can assure the closed-loop performances of a vehicle drivetrain with backlash, while compensating the network-induced time-varying delays. Firstly, a piecewise linear model of a two inertias drivetrain, which takes into consideration the backlash nonlinearity together with the driveshaft flexibility is derived. Then, the error caused by the time-varying delays is modeled as a disturbance and a method of bounding the disturbances is presented. Thirdly, a robust predictive controller based on flexible control Lyapunov functions is designed, which explicitly takes into account the bounds of the disturbances caused by time-varying delays and guarantees also the input-to-state stability of the system in a non-conservative way. The control strategy was experimentally tested on a vehicle drivetrain emulator controlled through Controller Area Network, with the aims of minimizing the backlash effects and damping driveline oscillations.