Robust Vehicle Lateral Stabilization via Set-Based Methods for Uncertain Piecewise Affine Systems: Experimental Results

The paper presents the design of a lateral stability controller for ground vehicles based on front steering and four wheels independent braking. The control objective is to track yaw rate and lateral velocity reference signals while avoiding front and rear wheel traction force saturation. Control design is based on an approximate piecewise-affine nonlinear dynamical model of the vehicle. Vehicle longitudinal velocity and driver steering input are modeled as measured disturbances taking values in a compact set. We use a time-optimal control strategy which ensures convergence into a maximal robust control invariant set. This paper presents the controller experimental results on a vehicle equipped with active front steering and differential braking. In particular, tests at high-speed on ice with aggressive driver maneuvers show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.