LPV Static Output Feedback for Constrained Direct Tilt Control of Narrow Tilting Vehicles
This brief presents a new direct tilt control (DTC) design to improve the lateral stability and the driving comfort of narrow tilting vehicles. To this end, a conceptual model is constructed from the vehicle dynamics, a simplified model of the driving environment, and the vehicle perceived acceleration. This latter is considered as the main performance variable of the related <inline formula> <tex math notation="LaTeX"\mathcal {H}_{2} /tex math>/inline formula> control problem. The conceptual model is then represented in a polytopic linear parameter varying (LPV) form for control purposes. To avoid the use of costly vehicle sensors while favoring the simplest control structure for real time implementation, a new LPV static output feedback control method is proposed. Thanks to Lyapunov stability arguments, physical constraints on both system states and DTC actuator are <italic>explicitly</italic> considered in the design procedure to improve the safety and the comfort of passengers. Moreover, a parameter dependent Lyapunov function is exploited for theoretical developments. In this way, the <italic>finite</italic> bounds on vehicle speed and acceleration are effectively taken into account in the control design to reduce the conservatism. The <inline formula> <tex math notation="LaTeX"\mathcal {H}_{2} /tex math>/inline formula> control design is recast as a linear matrix inequality based optimization which can be easily solved with numerical solvers. The resulting robust DTC controller is evaluated with realistic driving scenarios.
IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology