ACTIVE ROLL CONTROL OF ARTICULATED VEHICLES

This paper describes an investigation into active roll control of arti culated vehicles. The objective is to minimise lateral load transfer u sing anti-roll bars incorporating low bandwidth hydraulic actuators. R esults from handling tests performed on an articulated vehicle are use d to validate a nonlinear yaw/roll model of the vehicle. The methodolo gy used to design lateral acceleration controllers for vehicles equipp ed with active anti-roll bars is developed using a simplified linear a rticulated vehicle model. The hardware limitations and power consumpti on requirements of the active elements are studied. The controller is then implemented in the validated articulated vehicle model to evaluat e the performance of an articulated lorry with active anti-roll bars. The simulation results demonstrate the possibility of a significant im provement in transient roll performance of the vehicle, using a relati vely low power system (10 kW), with low bandwidth actuators (5 Hz).