Roll Damping Control of a Heavy Vehicle under the Strong Crosswind

When driving a heavy vehicle following a straight route under the inclement environmental conditions such as the strong wind, road irregularities, and slippery roads, drivers can compensate continuously for small directional deviations from the desired course by controlling the handle. However, when making an abrupt lane change, especially in the strong wind condition, drivers have not enough time to make the compensation for adjusting the handle and it will be initiate a rollover. This paper contributes to increase knowledge about the directional stability of heavy vehicles under the influence of crosswind gusts by using an advanced vehicle model. A new approach of rollover prevention under the strong crosswind by using active rear wheel steer is proposed. The effectiveness of using Model Predictive Control (MPC) controllers designed for the lane following and degradation of the roll angle were confirmed through the lane change based on simulation results.