An Integrated Design Method for Articulated Heavy Vehicles with Active Trailer Steering Systems

A closed-loop dynamic simulation-based design method for articulated heavy vehicles with active trailer steering systems

“…The resultant design based on this sequential method may behave less 'optimal' overall due to the mechanical and control parameters not being simultaneously considered as design variables [10].…”

“…To tackle the design synthesis of AHVs with ATS systems, He et al [10] have recommended a method in which the optimal active and passive design variables are identified in two design loops (TDLs). In the first design loop, with all the passive system parameters taking their nominal values, the weighting factors of the LQR controller's cost function for the ATS system is automatically identified using an optimisation technique.…”

“…Finally, conclusions are drawn in Section 6. Figure 1 shows the three DOF linear yaw plane model [10,13,14], representing an articulated vehicle that consists of a truck and a drawbar trailer with a dependent front axle. The truck and drawbar trailer are connected by a hinge pin.…”

“…Hence, the linear vehicle model was adopted in the research. (2) In order to investigate the variations of RWA ratio of AHVs and derive lateral motion control algorithms, linear yaw plane models are usually used [2,3,7,9,10,13]. (3) Nonlinear three-dimensional articulated vehicle models considering rolling motion have been used to achieve accurate numerical results and validate the control algorithms derived from simplified linear models [17,18].…”

“…The TDL method is based on open-loop dynamic simulations: (1) to determine the low-speed PFOT value, the 360 • roundabout path-following test manoeuvre specified in the UK's Road Vehicle Regulation is emulated with a predefined step steer input for the truck [6] and (2) to determine the high-speed RWA ratio, a single lane-change test manoeuvre is simulated with a prescribed single sinusoidal wave steer input for the truck. Numerous numerical experiments indicate that open-loop dynamic simulations are difficult to emulate the well-defined test manoeuvres, such as the single lane-change manoeuvre defined by SAE J2179 [11] for evaluating the RWA ratio, with high fidelity [10]. In order to evaluate and validate AHVs' directional performance and the corresponding ATS functions, it is essential to have a driver model that can 'drive' a virtual prototype of the AHV to follow a prescribed route at a given speed without pre-defined steering inputs.…”