Applications of Computational Optimal Control to Vehicle Dynamics

Abstract

Modern vehicle dynamic control systems are based on new types of actuators, such as active steering and active differentials, in order to improve the overall handling performance including stability, responsiveness, and agility. Numerical techniques of off-line optimization of vehicle dynamics control variables can conveniently be used to facilitate decisions on optimal actuator configurations and provide guidance for design of realistic, on-line controllers. This chapter overviews the previous authors' results of assessment of various vehicle dynamics actuator configurations based on application of a back propagation through time (BPTT) conjugate gradient optimization algorithm. It is then focused on detailed optimization of active front and rear steering control variables for various maneuvers and design specifications, where a nonlinear programming-based optimization tool is used. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.