Four-wheel-steering Control Strategy and its Integration with Vehicle Dynamics Control and Active Roll Control

The paper presents a 4-wheel-steering (4WS) control strategy devoted to reduce the turn diameter for small longitudinal speed values and to obtain a yaw rate damping effect in dynamic manoeuvres. Moreover, the 4WS active system conceived produces compensation both for lateral wind and road irregularities. The main results obtained through a functional vehicle model are presented. 4WS was integrated with a Vehicle Dynamics Control (VDC), which was improved for turn while braking manoeuvres. The results due to integration were very good, with a reduction of both systems interventions. Finally, a VDC-4WS-Active Roll Control (ARC) integration was tried, based on only one reference body yaw rate for all the active systems. The main results obtained are presented and discussed.