Vehicle Dynamics and Control

This course provides fundamental knowledge on vehicle motion, vehicle-road interaction and the main technical principles and aspects of automotive control systems. This course discusses vehicle modelling, controller design and testing procedures to evaluate vehicle motion and automotive control systems.

Tire dynamics and modelling

• Wheel slip, slip angle, tire force / moments, influence of camber angle, pressure, temperature effect, combined slip, friction circle, transient behavior

• Tire modelling and wheel dynamics

Lateral motion and vehicle handling

• Kinematics, understeer gradient, bicycle model, steady-state handling

• Transient motion, frequency response, handling testing, vehicle stability

Antilock braking system (ABS) and vehicle dynamics control (VDC)

• General concepts of ABS and different control principals: rule-based, mixed slip-deceleration, advanced control techniques

• General concept of VDC, yaw rate based controller, body slip angle based controller, integrated vehicle control using control allocation

Planar motion

• Planar vehicle modelling

• Static equilibrium, lateral load transfer, roll center and axis, roll stiffness, anti-roll bars

• Longitudinal load transfer, pitch center, anti-dive, anti-lift

Steering en assist logic

• Wheel kinematics, steering system modelling, column- and rack-assist

• Steering assist logic, steering feel and assessment

Path-following and evasive control of automated vehicles

• Vehicle road model, error definition, an overview of path-following controllers, PD controller

• Evasive maneuver, advanced control techniques, MPC-based evasive steering assist

Vertical motion and comfort

• Introduction to vibration, quarter car, 2DoF and 3DoF models, Ride comfort

• Suspension control: skyhook, groundhook, and mixed control

Vehicle state estimation

• General concept of VSE, vehicle velocity estimation, Kalman filtering (linear and extended), wheel load reconstruction methods

Final presentations of the group project

• Homework assignments (25%) individual

• Group project (25% ) collaboration in groups of 4-5 students

• Written exam (50%) individual

The examination is a closed-book digital exam on campus including multi-select and open questions.

The grade for the homework assignments will be the average grade of the 3 assignments.

Knock-out criteria

• Minimum average grade for homework assignments is a 5.0

• Minimum average grade for group project is a 5.0

• Minimum grade for the exam is a 5.0

• Final grade minimum is a 5.75