Coordinated model predictive control of active trailer safety systems for multi-trailer articulated heavy vehicles

Multi-trailer articulated heavy vehicles (MTAHVs) are widely used in North America and some European countries. However, due to multi-unit structures, larger sizes, and higher center of gravity compared with cars, MTAHVs exhibit poorer low-speed maneuverability and worse high-speed directional stability especially in low-friction road surface condition or emergency driving scenarios like obstacle avoidance. Passive safety systems, e.g., command steering utilized in trailers, may improve the maneuverability at low speeds; however, at high speeds they even exacerbate the lateral stability. Active safety systems categorized as reactive safety systems (RSSs) are not effective for preventing road accidents from happening, because they may only consider the current vehicle states, and not take future states into account. These RSSs, thus, may neither remove nor correct human driver errors during vehicle operations.
2022 Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering International Congress, June 5-8, 2022, Edmonton, Alberta