Development of a new traction control system for vehicles with automatic transmissions

A traction control system (TCS) is used to improve the acceleration performance on slippery roads by preventing excessive wheel slip. In this paper, a new traction control system using the integrated control of gear shifting and throttle actuation is developed for vehicles with automatic transmissions. In the design of the slip controller, by means of a differential manifold transformation, a slip control system with nonlinearities and uncertainties is transformed into a linear system, and a sliding mode controller is applied for the purpose of increasing the robustness of the system. Next, to achieve the required driving torque, the optimal throttle and gear position, maps are constructed based on dynamic programming. The simulation results indicate that the present traction control system can improve the acceleration performance of an automatic transmission vehicle for various types of road conditions.