Vehicle dynamics control by using a three-dimensional stabilizer pendulum system

Active safety systems of a vehicle normally work well on tyre–road interactions, however, these systems deteriorate in performance on low-friction road conditions. To combat this effect, an innovative idea for the yaw moment and roll dynamic control is presented in this paper. This idea was inspired by the chase and run dynamics animals like cheetahs in the nature; cheetahs have the ability to swerve while running at very high speeds. A cheetah controls its dynamics by rotating its long tail. A three-dimensional stabilizer pendulum system (3D-SPS) resembles the rotational motion of the tail of a cheetah to improve the stability and safety of a vehicle. The idea has been developed in a stand-alone 3D stabilizer pendulum system as well as in an integrated control system, which consists of an ordinary differential braking direct yaw control (DYC) and active steering control that is assisted by the 3D-SPS. The performance of the proposed 3D-SPS has been evaluated over a wide range of handling manoeuvres by using a comprehensive numerical simulation. The results show the advantage of 3D-SPS over conventional control approaches, which are ineffective on low-friction road conditions and high lateral acceleration manoeuvres. It should however be noted that the best vehicle dynamics performance is obtained when an integrated 3D-SPS and DYC and AFS is utilised.