Determination of Minimum State Preview Time to Prevent Vehicle Rollover Available to Purchase

This research focuses on determining the minimum preview time needed to predict and prevent vehicle rollover. Statistics show that although rollover only occurs in 2.2% of total highway crashes, it accounts for 10.7% of total fatalities. There are several dynamic rollover metrics in use that measure a vehicle’s rollover propensity under specified conditions. However, in order to prevent a rollover event from occurring, it is necessary to predict a vehicle’s future rollover propensity. This research uses a novel vehicle rollover metric, called the zero-moment point (ZMP), to predict a vehicle’s rollover propensity. Comparing different amounts of preview, the results show that short-range predictions — as little as 0.75 seconds ahead of the vehicle — are sufficient to prevent nearly all dynamics-induced rollovers in typical shoulders and medians.