Rollover prevention for heavy trucks using frequency shaped sliding mode control

Control and handling of heavy commercial vehicles carrying liquid cargo are influenced by moving liquid within the partially filled tank. During steering and braking maneuvering tasks, truck may exhibit unstable behavior at lateral acceleration levels of 0.3 g to 0.4 g [m/sec/sup 2/]. The fluid slosh forces and dynamic load transfer in lateral and longitudinal directions and parameter variations, uncertainties caused by the moving liquid cargo affect the overall dynamics of the vehicle. The frequency shaped backstepping sliding mode algorithm, proposed by Acarman and Ozguner (2002), is designed to stabilize and attenuate the sloshing effects of the moving cargo by properly choosing the crossover frequencies of the dynamic compensators in accordance with the fundamental frequencies of the slosh dynamics.