Print Email Facebook Twitter Trailer Sway Stabilization by Active Control of the Towing Vehicle Title Trailer Sway Stabilization by Active Control of the Towing Vehicle Author Gunalan, Manish (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) Contributor Shyrokau, B. (mentor) Degree granting institution Delft University of Technology Programme Mechanical Engineering | Vehicle Engineering | Dynamics and Controls Date 2021-02-25 Abstract A combination vehicle system consists of a lead vehicle that powers the motion, and one or more trailers that are towed by the lead vehicle. Any such vehicle system is unstable due to the presence of a coupling joint that disconnects the driver from the trailer. The risk of an accident is increased since many trailer parameters are variable and change with operating conditions. In light combination vehicles where the towing vehicle is a passenger car or SUV, the situation is more serious because the driver is necessarily not skilled enough to perceive the effects of steering and braking actions on the response of the trailer. A method to stabilise the car-trailer system by controlling the actuators of only the towing car is presented. Although similar attempts have been made in the past, they have been limited by their scope of applicability. The main component of the sway stabilization system is the Sliding Mode Controller (SMC) that is robust and has a good transient performance. This controller is combined with a weighted least squares control allocation method to control the rear-wheel steering and the brakes of the towing car. The control allocation method provides flexibility and redundancy to the system. Based on simulations over different test cases, it is seen that the car-trailer system can be stabilised significantly, resulting in an improvement in the lateral handling characteristics, and reducing the chances of an accident occurring due to driver error. The thesis concludes by highlighting the advantages of the design and proposing recommendations for further improvement. Subject Trailerarticulated vehicleSway Stabilization To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fe77d69f-66cf-45e1-9eda-f1dc6c809dc0 Part of collection Student theses Document type master thesis Rights © 2021 Manish Gunalan Files PDF MSc_Thesis_Report_Manish_ ... unalan.pdf 22.95 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:fe77d69f-66cf-45e1-9eda-f1dc6c809dc0/datastream/OBJ/view