Brake Control of a Two-wheeler using Optimal Slip Prediction based Sliding Mode Control

With the increase in average speed of two-wheelers, there is a compelling need to ensure safety by maintaining stability of the two-wheelers during braking by preventing wheel lock. In this paper, we develop a sliding mode controller based brake control strategy for a two-wheeler using its dynamic model which proportions the brake force to front and rear wheels through appropriate commands, so as to track the optimal wheel slip during braking. This is in response to the rider's brake force demand through the front and rear brake control levers, taken as inputs, which influence the braking torque in another wheel as well. Further, the optimal wheel slip is calculated during runtime to achieve the maximum coefficient of friction in the given road and vehicle. By implementing the control strategy in conjunction with a two-wheeler simulation model, the performance is analyzed in terms of stability, minimum stopping distance, optimal slip tracking and jerk.