Narrow Tilting Vehicles

Narrow Tilting Vehicles
Author: Chen Tang
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 75
Release: 2022-05-31
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3031015010

To resolve the urban transportation challenges like congestion, parking, fuel consumption, and pollution, narrow urban vehicles which are small in footprint and light in their gross weight are proposed. Apart from the narrow cabin design, these vehicles are featured by their active tilting system, which automatically tilts the cabin like a motorcycle during the cornering for comfort and safety improvements. Such vehicles have been manufactured and utilized in city commuter programs. However, there is no book that systematically discusses the mechanism, dynamics, and control of narrow tilting vehicles (NTVs). In this book, motivations for building NTVs and various tilting mechanisms designs are reviewed, followed by the study of their dynamics. Finally, control algorithms designed to fully utilize the potential of tilting mechanisms in narrow vehicles are discussed. Special attention is paid to an efficient use of the control energy for rollover mitigation, which greatly enhance the stability of NTVs with optimized operational costs.

Modelling and Control of Narrow Tilting Vehicle for Future Transportation System

Modelling and Control of Narrow Tilting Vehicle for Future Transportation System
Author: Yaxing Ren
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN:

The increasing number of cars leads traffic congestion and parking problems in urban area. Small electric four-wheeled narrow tilting vehicles (NTV) have the potential to become the next generation of city cars. However, due to its narrow width, the NTV has to lean into corners like two-wheeled vehicles during a turn. It is a challenge to maintain its roll stability to protect it from falling down. This chapter aims to describe the development of NTV and drive assistance technologies in helping to improve the stability of an NTV in turning. The modelling of an NTV considers the dynamics of the tyres and power train of the vehicle. A nonlinear tilting controller for the direct tilting control mechanism is designed to reduce the nonlinear behaviour of an NTV operating at different vehicle velocities. In addition, two torque vectoring based torque controllers are designed to reduce the counter-steering process and improve the stability of the NTV when it turns into a corner. The results indicate that the designed controllers have the ability to reduce the yaw rate tracking error and maximum roll rate. Then riders can drive an NTV easily with the drive assistance system.

Chapter Modelling and Control of Narrow Tilting Vehicle for Future Transportation System

Chapter Modelling and Control of Narrow Tilting Vehicle for Future Transportation System
Author: Yaxing Ren
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN:

The increasing number of cars leads traffic congestion and parking problems in urban area. Small electric four-wheeled narrow tilting vehicles (NTV) have the potential to become the next generation of city cars. However, due to its narrow width, the NTV has to lean into corners like two-wheeled vehicles during a turn. It is a challenge to maintain its roll stability to protect it from falling down. This chapter aims to describe the development of NTV and drive assistance technologies in helping to improve the stability of an NTV in turning. The modelling of an NTV considers the dynamics of the tyres and power train of the vehicle. A nonlinear tilting controller for the direct tilting control mechanism is designed to reduce the nonlinear behaviour of an NTV operating at different vehicle velocities. In addition, two torque vectoring based torque controllers are designed to reduce the counter-steering process and improve the stability of the NTV when it turns into a corner. The results indicate that the designed controllers have the ability to reduce the yaw rate tracking error and maximum roll rate. Then riders can drive an NTV easily with the drive assistance system.

Narrow Urban Vehicles with an Integrated Suspension Tilting System

Narrow Urban Vehicles with an Integrated Suspension Tilting System
Author: Chen Tang
Publisher:
Total Pages: 122
Release: 2018
Genre: Automobiles
ISBN:

Narrow urban vehicles are proposed to alleviate urban transportation challenges like congestion, parking, fuel consumption, and pollution. They are designed to seat one or two people in tandem, which saves space in road infrastructures as well as improves the fuel efficiency. However, to overcome the high rollover tendency which comes as a consequence of reduced track-width ratio, tilting systems for vehicle roll motion control are suggested. Existing tilting solutions, which mechanically connect the wheel modules on both sides for motion synchronization, are not space-friendly for the narrow vehicle footprint. The mechanical linkages also add extra weight to those urban vehicles initially designed to be light-weighted. A novel integrated suspension tilting system (ISTS) is proposed in this thesis, which replaces rigid mechanical linkages with flexible hydraulic pipes and cylinders. In addition, combining the suspension and tilting into an integrated system will result in even more compact, light-weighted, and spacious urban vehicles. The concept is examined, and the suspension mechanism for the tilting application is proposed after examining various mechanisms for their complexity and space requirements. Kinematic and dynamic properties of the tilting vehicle under large suspension strokes are analyzed to optimize the mechanism design. Control of the active tilting systems for vehicle roll stability improvement is then discussed. Rather than tilting the vehicle to entirely eliminate the lateral load transfer during cornering, an integrated envelope approach considering both lateral and roll motion is proposed to improve the energy efficiency while maintaining the vehicle stability. A re-configurable integrated control structure is also developed for various vehicle configurations as well as enhancing the system robustness against actuator failures. The model predictive control (MPC) scheme is adopted considering the non-minimum phase nature of active tilting systems. The predictive feature along with the proposed roll envelope formulation provides a framework to balance the transient and steady-state performances using the tilting actuators. The suggested controller is firstly demonstrated on a vehicle roll model, and then applied to high-fidelity full vehicle models in CarSim including a four-wheeled SUV as well as a three-wheeled narrow urban vehicle. The SUV simulation results indicate the potential of using the developed envelope controller on conventional vehicles with active suspensions, while the narrow urban vehicle simulations demonstrate the feasibility of using the suggested ISTS on narrow tilting vehicles. By adopting the integrated envelope control approach, actuation effort is reduced and the vehicle handling, along with the stability in both lateral and roll, can be further improved.

Active Tilt and Steer Control for a Narrow Tilting Vehicle

Active Tilt and Steer Control for a Narrow Tilting Vehicle
Author: Lester Daniel Suarez Cabrera
Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2012-04
Genre:
ISBN: 9783848497232

Nowadays, the problem of the pollution, the cost of the energy, the traffic congestions and the progress in the technology of control systems more recently motivated a new interest in small narrow commuters vehicles for individual mobility. However these kind of vehicles are likely to have reduced stability against overturning during cornering due to the particular geometric with a narrow track width and relatively high center of gravity. This brings about the need for an active control system that ensures the tilt stability or an appropriate leaning during cornering without affecting the handling of the vehicle. Hence, Active Tilt and Steer control tends to be an alternative strategy that combines the action of traditional power steer and tilting actuator acting on the front suspension in order to allows the vehicle stays upright at lower speeds, and at higher speeds allows car-like steering while the vehicle self-leans into the curves like a motorcycle.