Hierarchical control of automotive electric power steering system and anti-lock brake system: theory and experiment

This paper studies integrated control of chassis control systems to achieve the goal of functional integration of the control systems. A two-layer hierarchical control architecture is developed for integrated control of Electric Power Steering (EPS) system and Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS). The upper-layer controller is designed to coordinate the interactions between the EPS system and the ABS. In the lower layer, the two controllers including the EPS system and the ABS are designed independently to achieve their local control objectives. Both a simulation investigation and an on-vehicle experimental study are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical control system. Simulation results show that the system is able to improve the lateral stability of the vehicle, and at the same time ensure the steering agility and braking performance of the vehicle. Moreover, on-vehicle experiment results conform to the simulation results.