Robust state feedback stabilization of articulated steer vehicles

Downloaded By: [ISI Thomson Scientific] At: 17: 54 21 March 2007 In this work, a full-state feedback controller is designed to prevent the oscillatory instability or snaking behaviour of an articulated steer vehicle. To design the controller, first, a linearized model of the vehicle is developed and analyzed to identify the most important uncertain tire parameters with regard to the snaking mode. By using this linearized model, the equations of motion are represented in the form of a polytopic system, which depends affinely on the most important uncertain tire parameters. Then, by solving some linear matrix inequalities, both the Lyapunov and state feedback matrices for the robust stabilization of the vehicle are found. The performance of the resulting controller is evaluated by conducting several simulations based on the linearized model. To verify the results from the linearized model analysis, some simulations are also done by a virtual prototype of the vehicle in ADAMS. The results based on the linearized model are reasonably consistent with those from the simulations in ADAMS. They show that the controller can effectively stabilize the vehicle during the snaking mode in different driving conditions.