Trade-offs for Vehicle Stability Control Sensor Sets

Customers of new vehicles expect their vehicle to provide reliable operation. One path vehicle manufacturers have chosen to meet this expectation is to offer their customers advanced braking systems. Antilock Brakes (ABS) and Traction Control (TC) are two advanced braking systems that have evolved to a point at which many OEM's offer them as standard equipment. Size, weight, and performance have also improved to the point of near transparent operation in many cases. The current direction of braking system evolution is in making Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) widely available as well. VSC adds the ability to assist the driver in negotiating understeer and oversteer, by adding corrective braking and engine torque to the vehicle as appropriate.

A large percentage of VSC system modeling is related to the sensors chosen to provide driver and vehicle dynamic information to the system's electronic control unit (ECU). This paper will introduce the reader to the trade-offs of Sensor Sets affecting vehicle dynamics and driver modeling.