ESP for Suppression of Jackknifing in an Articulated Bus

Abstract: The Electronic Stability Program (ESP) is becoming increasingly popular in vehicles as a means to prevent spin-out and lane departure accidents, and is nowadays a standard feature in most cars. From 2012 the ESP will also be a standard feature in buses. As a first step, this thesis is dedicated to implementing an ESP for an articulated bus in simulation using Matlab/Simulink. The core of the ESP is a yaw rate controller that calculates a moment about the center of gravity of the front part of the bus to stabilize it. Integrated in the ESP are also an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) and an Anti-Spin Regulation (ASR) system, which are model-based controllers that produce the brake pressures needed to achieve the desired moment. For the articulated bus it is clear that the fact that the bus consists of two parts makes the problem of stabilizing the bus more difficult. Furthermore, for articulated vehicles it is known that the risk of having the vehicle folding, known as jackknifing, during cornering is a major problem. However, the ESP is found to stabilize the bus for a large number of maneuvers and loading configurations, as well as suppressing jackknifing.