Road Bank Estimation on Uneven Terrain for Unmanned Ground Vehicles

Abstract

Knowledge of non-negligible bank angle is important for preventing rollover on uneven terrain. This article shows the effect of uneven terrain on rollover and explores a method to calculate the bank of the uneven terrain. An Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is implemented to estimate the total roll of the vehicle. Information on the relative roll of the vehicle is acquired from suspension geometry and suspension deflections. The combination of EKF estimated roll and measured suspension deflections yields an estimate of the road bank angle.

Model based off-road terrain profile estimation

“…Hahn et al [1] and Ryu et al [4] showed that the road bank angle can be estimated using vehicle model based disturbance observers. Brown et al [2] showed that a Kinematic vehicle state estimator along with suspension deflections could be used to estimate the road bank angle.…”

“…Most commonly methods have been developed to estimate the road bank for the purpose of improving roll angle estimates for roll over prevention [1,2,3,4]. Hahn et al [1] and Ryu et al [4] showed that the road bank angle can be estimated using vehicle model based disturbance observers.…”