ABSTRACT
Recently, vehicles have been equipped with various control mechanisms.1,2 Vehicle maneuverability control is especially expected to improve safety in critical cornering motions in emergency. Figure 1 shows a relation between the slip angle of a tire and the cornering force. The slip angle represents the angle between the direction of motion and the plane of the tire, and the cornering force is defined as the force directing at right angles to the direction of vehicle motion (see Figure 2). In moderate cornering motions, as can be seen in Figure 1, cornering force can be regarded as a linear function
of a slip angle. In this case linear control theory can be used for vehicle maneuverability control designing. However, in critical cornering motions, nonlinearity of the cornering force cannot be neglected, which necessitates consideration about the nonlinear characteristics of the cornering force. In this chapter, control designing methods of vehicle maneuverability considering nonlinear characteristics of the cornering force are introduced.
