Design of a Nonlinear Stability Controller for Ground Vehicles Subjected to a Tire Blowout Using Double-Integral Sliding-Mode Controller

To enhance the stability of a ground vehicle subjected to a tire blowout, a corrective safety control system is designed and evaluated. Along with the Dugoff tire model, a nonlinear planar seven-degrees-of-freedom (7 DOF) vehicle model is developed and validated using an MSC Adams car. The impact of the tire blowout on the vehicle response is analyzed. In consequence, a selective traction control technique in the framework of a single- and double-integral sliding-mode controller (DISMC) is established. The proposed novel control-oriented model accounts for the longitudinal dynamics, large steering and slip angles, and the nonlinearity of the vehicle/tire coupled system. The controller utilizes a single front-wheel torque to counteract the blowout-induced yaw disturbance. The results show that the proposed controller is perfectly competent to stabilize the vehicle and robustly track the desired trajectory in straight-line and cornering maneuvers. The single- and double-integral sliding surfaces are employed to enhance the steady-state performance of the system.