Research on handling stability of 3-axles vehicle based on model prediction and dual sliding mode combining control

Abstract In this paper, the research on the handling stability of 3-axles vehicle is carried out. Then, an innovative method is designed based on the combination of Model Predictive Control(MPC) and Sliding Mode Control (SMC), where the MPC is adopted for yaw moment control, and the SMC is established for steering angle control. Firstly, the lateral two-degree of freedom(2-DOF) model of 3-axles vehicle is established. In addition, the geometric characteristics of Ackerman steering for 3-axles vehicles are qualitatively analyzed. Under the condition that the front wheel angle is known, the proportional relationship of the steering angle of each axle when the vehicle meets Ackerman steering geometry is derived. On this basis, the hypothesis of virtual yaw moment is put forward, and the method of replacing the angle control quantity with virtual yaw moment is proposed to establish a new lateral 2-DOF model of 3-axles vehicle with additional yaw moment as the only control quantity. Further, according to this model, an additional yaw moment controller based on model predictive control(MPC) is presented. Then, a dual sliding mode controller is designed based on the side angle and the yaw rate when the angle of the front axle is considered as known. By employing the nominal control quantity instead of the actual control quantity, the stability control law based on the side angle and the yaw rate is solved severally, and the two are decoupled to obtain the wheel angle values of the middle axle and the rear axle. To verify the superiority of the combining control method proposed in this paper, another four control methods are set up for comparison, and simulation experiments are carried out in different scenarios. The simulation results show that the dual controller combining control method proposed in this paper possesses a favourable handling stability control performance.