Active Variable Wheelbase as an Innovative Approach in Vehicle Dynamic Control

Active variable wheelbase (AVW) has been introduced here as an innovative vehicle dynamic control method in which, the position of the front or rear axle relative to the vehicle C.G. can be actively varied. An attempt has been made to show the potential capabilities of this method in improving the road handling and stability of vehicles regardless of its embedded technical difficulties. For this purpose the proposed method has been conceptually studied in the first step and has been shown that one can generate the stabilizing yaw moment by changing the distance of the vehicle C.G. from the front or rear axles. Then the proposed concept has been theoretically studied using a simple vehicle dynamic model incorporated with the Magic Formula tire model. A comprehensive nonlinear 8 DOF vehicle model and a ‘model following control strategy’ have been used to evaluate the performance of AVW systems. The vehicle dynamic behavior when it is either uncontrolled or equipped with an AVW system has been simulated. Simulation results show that AVW can be considered as an innovative method for vehicle dynamic control in future.