A methodology for the design of robust rollover prevention controllers for automotive vehicles: Part 1-Differential braking

In this paper we apply recent results from robust control to the problem of rollover prevention in automotive vehicles. Specifically, we exploit the results of Pancake, Corless and Brockman, which provide controllers to robustly guarantee that the peak values of the performance outputs of an uncertain system do not exceed certain values. We introduce a new measure of performance for rollover prevention, the Load Transfer Ratio LTRd, and design differential-braking-based rollover controllers to keep the value of this quantity below a certain level; we also obtain controllers which yield robustness to variations in vehicle speed. We present numerical simulations to demonstrate the efficacy of our controllers.