Agent-based coordination framework for integrated vehicle chassis control

An agent-based integrated control framework is proposed to organize the active steering, active driveline, active brake, and anti-lock braking-acceleration slip regulation controllers, which traditionally have been relatively independent. Analysis is made of the characteristics of vehicle-handling dynamics, the functions of the individual controllers, and their interrelationships. A coordination mechanism is employed to manage interdependences and conflicts among the subcontrollers, so as to improve the flexibility, adaptability, and robustness of the global control system. The trade-off between yaw rate tracking, lateral stability, and longitudinal acceleration tracking is considered in the coordination. The control subsystems and the agent-based integrated control architecture are implemented in MATLAB/Simulink to study the vehicle-handling capability under critical manoeuvring conditions. Simulation results show that the proposed intelligent and flexible control framework is predominant in organizing the subsystems, and could provide better performance than the stand-alone controllers for the vehicle longitudinal and lateral motion.