Alternative Approach to Design ESC and MDPS Integrated Control System

The integrated control system of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and Motor-Driven Power Steering (MDPS) improves vehicle performance and extends functions via CAN network without any hardware modification. Although the ESC and MDPS integrated system does not improve vehicle behavior directly, it can inspire drivers to steer to the right direction by changing steering torque assistance characteristics. There are two different ways to control both ESC and MDPS systems: Top-down and Parallel control mode. First, the Top-down control mode, which is already widely used on the market, imposes ESC on the additional functions of ESC+MDPS integrated system. On the contrary, the Parallel control mode distributes the functions to ESC and MDPS, therefore each system does their own role and cooperates on special events. In this study, the parallel control mode controller is proposed and compared with the Top-down control mode. As the number of ESC and MDPS installed vehicles increases, the ESC and MDPS integrated system will become a standard for the vehicles with both top-down and parallel control mode in the near future.