2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

Yaw Stability Improvement for Four-Wheel

Active Steering Vehicle
using Sliding Mode Control
Norhazimi Hamzah

Yahaya Md Sam, Hazlina Selamat

Faculty of Electrical Engineering

Universiti Teknologi MARA
Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
norhazimi880@ppinang.uitm.edu.my

Faculty of Electrical Engineering

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Johor, Malaysia
yahaya@fke.utm.my, hazlina@fke.utm.my

M Khairi Aripin

Muhamad Fahezal Ismail

Control, Instrumentation & Automation Department.

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, UTeM
Melaka, Malaysia
khairiaripin@utem.edu.my

Industrial Automation Section

UniklMfi
Selangor, Malaysia
fahezal@mfi.unikl.edu.my
Nowadays, vehicle dynamics studies is focusing on active
steering control to improve the yaw stability control system. In
general, there are three techniques for active steering control
have been developed that are active front steering (AFS), rear
wheel active steering (ARS) and four wheel active steering
(4WAS). In AFS, front wheel steer angle is a sum of steer
angle commanded by the driver and a corrective steer angle
that generated by the designed controller. AFS is used to
improve the handling and stability performance. The
performance is good when vehicle is driving or handling at
steady state condition or tires forces is in linear region but it is
less effective when vehicle dynamics become nonlinear or tires
forces approaches their adhesion limit. The ARS on the other
hand is used to improve the vehicle transient response for low
speed cornering manoeuvres. In order to enhance the
manoeuvrability at low speed and the handling stability at high
speed, combination of active front steering and active rear
steering or so called four wheel active steering (4WAS) has
been proposed in [3], [4], and [5]. By implementing 4WAS
control, the lateral and yaw motion can be controlled
simultaneously using two independent control inputs via active
front steering and active rear steering where it is impossible to
control lateral and yaw motion using active front or active rear
steering only.

Abstract Active steering control is one of the approach that can

be used to improve the vehicles lateral and yaw stability. By
combining active front steering and active rear steering control,
the vehicles handling and stability can be improved via four
wheel active steering (4WAS) control. In this paper, a robust
control algorithm of sliding mode control is designed for 4WAS
vehicle. Single track 2 d.o.f linear model is utilized for controller
design and simulation purpose. Simulation for 4WAS and front
steering (AFS) is carried out in Simulink for step steer and
double lane change maneuver to verify the effectiveness of the
proposed control system. The result shows that the 4WAS
perform better than the AFS in tracking the desired response
trajectory.
Keywords- Active Steering Control, Four Wheel Active
Steering, Yaw Stability Control, Sliding Mode Control

I.

INTRODUCTION

Vehicle stability control (VSC) is one of the important

topics in vehicle dynamics where ongoing research is actively
conducted. The main objective of vehicle stability control is to
maintain the vehicle keep on the road or desired track/path.
Lateral force that exists in vehicle dynamic motion has great
influence to the vehicle stability. According to [1], yaw
stability control system that purely based on kinematic and
dynamics motion of vehicle is one of vehicle lateral control
system that have been developed by researchers. As reported
[2], there are three main control objectives of vehicle yaw
stability control system which are yaw rate control, sideslip
control and combination of both yaw rate and sideslip. The
purpose of yaw stability control system is to keep the vehicles
yaw rate as closer as possible to the nominal motion expected
by the driver. Conventionally, the lateral force of vehicle is
being controlled by steering system that directly commanded
by the driver.

978-1-4673-0961-5/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

In previous research works, 4WAS control has been

designed based on various control algorithms. In [3], a
decentralized nonlinear P and PI active steering control is
designed for active front and active rear steering control but
robustness issue is not discusses intensively. Optimal control
theory is implemented in [4] for optimal model following
control design that consists of feedforward and feedback
control but simulation and comparison analysis with other
controller is not carried out. In [5], sliding mode control is
designed for uncertainties parameters in 4WAS vehicle.

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2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

However, comparison between

uncontrolled AFS is insufficient.

controlled

4WAS

and

where C f and C r are front and rear cornering stiffness

respectively. Slip angles of front and rear tires, f and r can

In this paper, a prominent sliding mode control algorithm is

utilized for both 4WAS and AFS vehicle due to the robustness
properties against parameters uncertainties and disturbances.
This paper is organized in five sections as overview briefs in
Section I, vehicle dynamics modelling for controller design and
simulation in Section II, robust control design of sliding mode
control in Section III. The simulations and analysis is carried
out in Section V and this research paper concludes in Section
V.
II.

be obtained by using the following equations;

ar
Vx

(5)

br
Vx

(6)

f =f
r = r

By substitutes and rearrange equations (3), (4), (5) & (6) into
(1) & (2), state space model can be obtained as follows;

VEHICLE DYNAMICS MODEL

A. 4WAS Single Track Model

Single track model or also called bicycle model in [4] as
shown in Figure 1 is utilized to describe the dynamic model of
4WAS vehicle. This model used to design the controller for
yaw rate and lateral motion.

x = Ax + Bu

(7)

 a11 a12 b11 b12 f

=
+

r a21 a22 r b21 b22 r

(8)

where
a11 =

a 21 =

C f + Cr
mV x

aC f bC r

r
b11 =
Figure 1. Single track model 2 d.o.f

b21 =

, a12 = 1

Cf
mV x
aC f
Iz

Iz
, b12 =

, a 22 =

aC f bC r
mV x 2
a 2C f + b 2Cr
I zV x

Cr
mV x

, b12 =

bC r
Iz

(9)

(10)

(11)

(12)

In simplest form of planar motion, 2 d.o.f linear model for yaw

and lateral dynamic motion (roll motion is neglected) are
describe in the following equations:

where

Lateral motion;

sum of additional/corrective steer angle by controller, c and

steering wheel angle demanded/commanded by the driver, d ;

mVx  + mVx r = Fyf + Fyr

In equation (5), noted that front wheel steering angle, f is

(1)

f = d + c

Yaw rate;

I z r = aFyf bFyr

(13)

(2)

where m is vehicle mass, V x is vehicle forward speed, is

vehicle body sideslip, r is yaw rate, a/b is distance from
front/rear axle to center of gravitiy (CG), f and r are front

III.

The purpose of the control system is to maintain the vehicle

actual response close to the desired response determined by
the reference model. To ensure robustness of the system
against parameter uncertainties and external disturbance [6],
sliding mode controller is chosen as the steering controller.

and rear steering angle, I z is yaw moment of inertia and

F yf , F yr are lateral force of front and rear tires. With

assumptions linear relationship between tire lateral force and

tire slip angle;
F yf = C f f

(3)

F yr = C r r

(4)

CONTROLLER DESIGN FOR 4WAS VEHICLE

A. Vehicle Reference Model

The desired vehicle handling performance is expressed as
a reference model which has zero vehicle sideslip angle at the
center of gravity and the desired yaw rate is computed based
on the steering input and the vehicle speed.

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2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

The reference model [5] is represented by the following:

xd = Ad xd + Bd ud
(14)
d 1 /
0 k d / *
+
(15)
=
f


0
1
/ r r k rd / r

r
d

be a Lyapunov function candidate. The time derivative of

V along the system trajectories is calculated as

where

Ae + ( A Ad ) x d +

1
(CB ) C [ Ae ( A Ad ) x d + B d u d ]

T
V = C B

(CB ) 1 Q sgn( )

B u

d d

k d = 0, k rd

m b
a
Vx
=

and
K
=
2 L C f C r
L(1 + KV x 2 )

V = T  = T C [Ae + ( A Ad ) x d + Bu B d u d ]
Replacing equation (21) into (23)

(16)

B. Sliding Mode Controller Design

The first step in designing the sliding mode controller is to
choose a suitable sliding surface. Then, the control input is
design to drive the system trajectories to the sliding surface so
that the closed loop dynamics are completely governed by the
equation that define the surface.
The difference between the actual response and the desired
response define the tracking error.
d
(17)
e = x xd =

r rd

T Q sgn( )
where = T sgn( )

For Q > 0 , then V < 0 , the system is asymptotically stable and

sliding mode is enforce in the system.

IV.

Based on constant reaching law method [7],

 = Q sgn( )
Thus,
u = (CB) 1 C [ Ae ( A Ad ) x d + B d u d ]
(CB) 1 Q sgn( )

(19)

(20)

(21)

The reaching law approach will establish the reaching

condition which is the condition where the state will move
toward and reach the sliding surface as well as specifies the
dynamic characteristic of the system during the reaching
phase.
C. Stability Analysis
The stability of the closed loop system is determined using
Lyapunov stability theory. Let the positive definite function ;
V = 0.5 T

SIMULATION & RESULT ANALYSIS

Simulations using Simulink are carried out to verify the

effectiveness of the proposed sliding mode controller. The
simulations are carried out for the J-turn maneuver and lane
change maneuver. It is assumed that the vehicle travel on a flat
high friction road with speed 100km/h.
The responses of the 4WAS vehicle are compared to AFS
which also use sliding mode controller. Figure 2-5 show the
output response of the system for the J-turn maneuver and lane
change maneuver. The time response of the vehicle sideslip
angle and yaw rate in Fig. 2-5 show that the 4WAS perform
better than AFS in tracking the desired response trajectory of
the reference model.Based on the result, it is clear that the
availability of 2 input signals to be manipulated in the 4WAS
give advantage in controlling the lateral response and yaw
response simultaneously.

Taking derivative on equ. 18,

 = Ce = C [x x d ] = C [Ax + Bu ( Ad x d + B d u d )]
= C [Ae + ( A Ad ) x d + Bu B d u d ]

(24)

Then, the sliding surface, = 0 is defined as follows,

= Ce
(18)
where C is a full rank constant matrix. The matrix C is
chosen such that CB is nonsingular.

= C [Ax Ax d + Ax d Ad x d + Bu B d u d ]

(23)

(22)

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2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

0.5
desired
4WAS
AFS

0
0.4
0.2
0
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8

vehicle sideslip angle(deg)

-0.5
-1
-1.5

1.2

1.4

-2
-2.5
-3
-3.5
-4

3
t(sec)

Figure 2. Vehicle sideslip angle response with J-turn maneuver

0.45
desired
4WAS
AFS

0.4
0.35

yaw rate(rad/s)

0.3
0.35
0.25
0.3
0.2
0.25
0.15

1.2

1.4

1.6

0.1
0.05
0
-0.05

3
t(sec)

Figure 3. Yaw rate response with J-turn maneuver

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2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

5
desired
4WAS
AFS

vehicle sideslip angle(deg)

3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5

3
t(sec)

Figure 4. Vehicle sideslip angle response with lane change maneuver

0.6
desired
4WAS
AFS

0.4

yaw rate(rad/s)

0.2

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8

3
t(sec)

Figure 5. Yaw rate response with lane change maneuver

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2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

V.

[2]

CONCLUSION

A sliding mode controller for 4WAS vehicle is presented in

this paper. The application of SMC enable the lateral and yaw
motion of 4WAS to both simultaneously trace the response of
the reference model exactly, which is better than AFS.

[3]
[4]
[5]

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
[6]

The authors would like to thank UTM (Vot number

Q.J130000.2623.04J48), UiTM, UTeM and MoHE for
supporting the present work.

[7]

REFERENCE
[1]

R. Rajamani, "Lateral Vehicle DynamicsVehicle Dynamics and

Control," Springer US, 2006, pp. 15-49.

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W. J. Manning and D. A. Crolla, "A review of yaw rate and

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