Vehicle Stability Control for Trucks and Buses

Vehicle and traffic safety improvement is one of the most important targets in the vehicle industry. The introduction of ABS for commercial vehicles, meanwhile standard in various countries, was one of the major safety improvements. This system, based on electronics, sensors and actuators shows what is achievable by controlling brakes of such heavy vehicles at the physical limits under various road conditions. With EBS (brake-by-wire) further safety features are integrated including active access of each wheel brake that allows, independent from the driver to apply the brakes to keep the vehicle stable. Electronic stability control as the overall vehicle control system integrated into EBS leads to a new generation of driver assistance concepts.

The concept of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) integrated into EBS, simulation studies of vehicle behavior in critical situations, the control strategies and discussion of test results are the main content of this paper.