%0 Journal Article
%T Vehicle Yaw Rate Estimation Using a Virtual Sensor
%A M¨¹min Tolga Emirler
%A Kerim Kahraman
%A Mutlu £¿ent¨¹rk
%A Bilin Aksun G¨¹ven£¿
%A Levent G¨¹ven£¿
%A Bar£¿£¿ Efendio£¿lu
%J International Journal of Vehicular Technology
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/582691
%X Road vehicle yaw stability control systems like electronic stability program (ESP) are important active safety systems used for maintaining lateral stability of the vehicle. Vehicle yaw rate is the key parameter that needs to be known by a yaw stability control system. In this paper, yaw rate is estimated using a virtual sensor which contains kinematic relations and a velocity-scheduled Kalman filter. Kinematic estimation is carried out using wheel speeds, dynamic tire radius, and front wheel steering angle. In addition, a velocity-scheduled Kalman filter utilizing the linearized single-track model of the road vehicle is used in the dynamic estimation part of the virtual sensor. The designed virtual sensor is successfully tested offline using a validated, high degrees of freedom, and high fidelity vehicle model and using hardware-in-the-loop simulations. Moreover, actual road testing is carried out and the estimated yaw rate from the virtual sensor is compared with the actual yaw rate obtained from the commercial yaw rate sensor to demonstrate the effectiveness of the virtual yaw rate sensor in practical use. 1. Introduction Lateral stability of a road vehicle is very important for the safety of the driver and passengers during extreme lateral maneuvers or during lateral maneuvers under adverse environmental conditions like driving on snow or ice, sudden tire pressure loss, or sudden side wind. Vehicle stability control systems called ESP, vehicle dynamics control (VDC), yaw stability control (YSC), and so forth are used to improve the lateral stability of vehicles under such adverse conditions. Yaw stability control systems will become mandatory for new vehicles in Europe after 2011 (see [1]). Yaw rate is the most vital vehicle variable that needs to be known by a road vehicle stability system. The current state-of-the-art is that yaw rate is measured by yaw rate sensors in the form of microelectromechanical Sensor (MEMS) units. These sensors are commercially available, and they are used in vehicle stability systems, but like every other component inside a road vehicle, their price is a concern for manufacturers who try to lower costs [2, 3]. Some hard and expensive to measure vehicle variables like yaw rate can be estimated using other on-vehicle sensors such as lateral accelerometers and wheel speed sensors. There have been several attempts to estimate yaw rate using lateral accelerometers [2¨C6]. In [2], the vehicle yaw rate estimation was performed using two lateral accelerometers that are placed at the right and left sides of the vehicle. Yaw rate
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijvt/2013/582691/