TOWARDS GLOBAL CHASSIS CONTROL BY INTEGRATING THE BRAKE AND SUSPENSION SYSTEMS

A control structure that integrates active suspensions and an active brake is proposed to improve the safety of vehicles. The design is based on an ℋ∞ control synthesis extended to LPV systems and uses a parameter dependent Lyapunov function. In an emergency, such as an imminent rollover, the safety requirement overwrites the passenger comfort demand by tuning the performance weighting functions associated with the suspension systems. If the emergency persists active braking is applied to reduce the effects of the lateral load transfers and thus the rollover risk. The solution is facilitated by using the actual values of the so-called normalized lateral load transfer as a scheduling variable of the integrated control design. The applicability of the method is demonstrated through a complex simulation example containing vehicle maneuvers.