Intelligent system designed to improve vehicle stability systems

Researchers at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have developed an intelligent system for estimating a vehicle's dynamic behaviour and improving its stability. This will help to optimise the performance of skid and rollover control systems in cars, as well as to prevent potential traffic accidents. To prevent a vehicle losing control on the road, most current models are equipped with lateral stability systems or ESP (Electronic Stability Program), and roll stability systems or RSC (Roll Stability Control). The purpose of this technology is to check that the movement trajectory corresponds to the driver's intention, preventing unwanted swerving and sideslips. To carry out their function, these systems need to be continuously aware of the car's position and dynamics, in particular the sideslip and roll angles. The sideslip angle is the angle formed between the vehicle's alignment and the direction of its motion relative to its centre of gravity, while the roll angle is the rotation of the vehicle in relation to its longitudinal movement. "The innovative feature of this research project is the design of an 'observer' that makes it possible to simultaneously estimate the vehicle's sideslip and roll angles for a network-induced control system with transmission delay, based on a communication structure activated by events and combined with neural networks," explains one of its authors, Beatriz López Boada, professor in UC3M's Department of Mechanical Engineering, who recently published the study in the journal "Nonlinear Dynamics" together with colleagues from the School of Transportation Science and Engineering at Beihang University (China).