Computationally-efficient Motion Cueing Algorithm via Model Predictive Control

Driving simulators have been used in the automotive industry for many years because of their ability to perform tests in a safe, reproducible and controlled immersive virtual environment. The improved performance of the simulator and its ability to recreate in-vehicle experience for the user is established through motion cueing algorithms ...

Validation of Integrated EV Chassis Controller Using a Geographically Distributed X-in-the-loop Network

This paper presents the validation of an integrated chassis controller that unites three groups of actuators for the electric vehicle (EV) with independent in-wheel electric motors (IWMs) for each wheel. Controlled actuators are the IWMs, the active suspension, and the braking system. The models of test benches and the designed architecture of...

A Two-Stage Bayesian optimisation for Automatic Tuning of an Unscented Kalman Filter for Vehicle Sideslip Angle Estimation

This paper presents a novel methodology to auto-tune an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF). It involves using a Two-Stage Bayesian Optimisation (TSBO), based on a t-Student Process to optimise the process noise parameters of a UKF for vehicle sideslip angle estimation. Our method minimises performance metrics, given by the average sum of the states’...

3DOP: Comfort-oriented Motion Planning for Automated Vehicles with Active Suspensions

Motion comfort is the basis of many societal benefits promised by automated driving and motion planning is primarily responsible for this. By planning the spatial trajectory and the velocity profile, motion planners can significantly enhance motion comfort, ideally without sacrificing time efficiency. Active suspensions can push the boundary...

Comfort and Time Efficiency: A Roundabout Case Study

The public acceptance of automated driving is influenced by multiple factors. Apart from safety being of top priority, comfort and time efficiency also have an impact on the popularity of automated vehicles. These two factors contradict each other as optimizing for one results in the degradation of the other. We investigate in this paper how...

Assessment of optimal passive suspensions regarding motion sickness mitigation in different road profiles and sitting conditions

Automated vehicles (AVs) are expected to lead the evolution of mobility. Motion sickness, known as car sickness, is one of the main issues AVs will face, and could jeopardise their wide impact. However, a limited work has been done on how the optimisation of suspension dynamics could contribute. In this direction, this paper explores the...

MPC-based path following design for automated vehicles with rear wheel steering

Many studies have been recently exploited to discuss the path following control algorithms for automated vehicles using various control techniques. However, path following algorithm considering the possibility of automated vehicles with rear wheel steering (RWS) is still less investigated. In this study, we implemented nonlinear model...

Validating SuperHuman Automated Driving Performance

Closed-loop validation of autonomous vehicles is an open problem, significantly influencing development and adoption of this technology. The main contribution of this paper is a novel approach to reproducible, scenario-based validation that decouples the problem into several sub-problems, while avoiding to brake the crucial couplings. First,...

Anti-lock braking control design using a nonlinear model predictive approach and wheel information

Since several decades anti-lock braking systems rely on rule-based control strategies. Extensive literature review highlighted the possibility that significant improvements could be achieved if ABS controllers were redesigned taking advantage of the technological improvements achieved in the last decade. This work aims to verify this...

A real-time nonlinear MPC for extreme lateral stabilization of passenger vehicles

Loss of lateral stability remains a major cause of road accidents in recent years. Further improvement of passenger vehicle's active safety requires a more efficient utilization of the tire-road friction. Nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) is expected to fulfill such a role, as the nonlinear characteristics of the vehicle are included...

SafeVRU: A research platform for the interaction of self-driving vehicles with vulnerable road users

This paper presents our research platform SafeVRU for the interaction of self-driving vehicles with Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs, i.e., pedestrians and cyclists). The paper details the design (implemented with a modular structure within ROS) of the full stack of vehicle localization, environment perception, motion planning, and control, with...

Torque Vectoring Control on Ice for Electric Vehicles with Individually Actuated Wheels

Recent studies on torque vectoring control for electric vehicles proposed various efficient solutions demonstrating improvement of vehicle stability for evasive manoeuvres. However, the torque vectoring on very low friction surfaces such as black ice or wet snow is rarely investigated, especially for the electric vehicles with off-road...

Recent Advancements in Continuous Wheel Slip Control

The paper presents an overview of continuous wheel slip control (WSC) methods as the part of anti-lock braking system (ABS) for the several vehicles configurations with friction brakes and electric motors. Performance of proposed WSC design variants using several control techniques has been experimentally evaluated for three different test...

Conceptual testing of visual HMIs for merging of trucks

Merging sections are challenging for drivers of heavy goods vehicles. Visual support for merging was evaluated in a simulator. Experiment 1 tested HMIs that provided participants (n = 5) driving on the on-ramp with a top view or various forms of speed advice for accelerating behind or in front of a truck platoon on the freeway. Experiment 2...

Performance benchmark of state-of-the-art lateral path-following controllers

Although extensive research has been conducted to design path-following algorithms for automated vehicles, the cross comparison between different path-following controllers is still weakly-analyzed. Therefore, we benchmarked five path-following algorithms to evaluate their performance according to various disturbances like gust wind, drop of...

Search-based optimal motion planning for automated driving

This paper presents a framework for fast and robust motion planning designed to facilitate automated driving. The framework allows for real-time computation even for horizons of several hundred meters and thus enabling automated driving in urban conditions. This is achieved through several features. Firstly, a convenient geometrical...

Design of haptic feedback control for Steer-by-Wire

This paper illustrates a comparison of different haptic feedback control strategies; primarily focusing on open and closed-loop methods for a Force-Feedback Steer-by-Wire system. Due to shortcomings caused by the feedback motor impedance in the open loop architecture, the tracking performance is deteriorated. Consequently it is shown that the...

Effect of steering model fidelity on subjective evaluation of truck steering feel

The steering behaviour in a driving simulator has a significant influence on a driving realism. This study investigates the influence of the complexity of a steering-system model on the subjective assessment of truck steering feel in on-centre handling. Ten subjects drove a highway task with and without lateral wind disturbance with 4 steering...