EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS IN ROBUST LATERAL CONTROL OF HIGHWAY VEHICLES

Vehicle lateral dynamics are affected by vehicle mass, longitudinal ve locity, vehicle inertia, and the cornering stiffness of the tires. All of these parameters are subject to variation, even over the course of a single trip. Therefore, a practical lateral control system must gua rantee stability, and hopefully ride comfort, over a wide range of par ameter changes. This article describes a robust controller that theore tically guarantees stability over a wide range of parameter changes. T he performance of the robust controller is then evaluated in simulatio n as well as on a test vehicle. Test results for experiments conducted on an instrumented track are presented, comparing the robust controll er to a PID controller that was tuned on the vehicle.