Estimation of vehicle sideslip angle based on steering torque

Vehicle sideslip angle is one of the important indicators to determine whether vehicles are stable and is also a significant parameter for vehicle stability control. However, it is almost impossible to be measured directly without complex and expensive sensors or devices. Soft measurements are therefore generally adopted to estimate vehicle sideslip angle on the basis of easily observed physical quantities. This paper proposes an estimation method of sideslip angle based on steering torque instead of steering angle, for the fact that steering torque signal has more rapid and direct response compared with that obtained from steering angle. The frequency is analyzed between steering torque-sideslip angle and steering angle-sideslip angle transfer functions, and the extended Kalman filter (EKF) for vehicle sideslip angle based on steering torque is proposed. Both simulation results and vehicle tests prove the validity of our estimating method, indicating that the proposed method based on steering torque exhibits better accuracy and more rapid response in extreme region than the one based on steering angle.