Abstract
Minimization of fatal consequences for the vehicle´s occupants during road accidents is the main aim of automotive active and passive safety systems. The profound contribution in this area makes in the new Hi-Tech sector of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The interrelation between the on- and off-board control tasks in ITS requires the new control philosophy for contemporary active safety systems. To investigate this strategy, the paper discusses the concept of virtual proving ground.
The parallel simulation of all components in the chain 'Road - Tire - Vehicle Sub-Systems (brakes, engine, powertrain, suspension etc.) - Active Safety Systems - ITS' is required for the goals to be sought. The virtual proving ground on the basis of software fusion is a powerful incentive to create and to approve the new ideas in the field of enhancing vehicle safety. The main research tasks examined by authors are the tyre models for safety control applications and fuzzy algorithms for intelligent vehicle safety control.
A number of tyre models based on fuzzy logic methods are proposed and investigated:
- by advanced sensor equipment on a vehicle,
- by environmental parameters.
Of special note are the tyre models in consideration of environmental parameters like the air and surface temperature, moisture and precipitation intensity. This approach is well fitted to the ITS applications, because it allows periodical short-term forecasting for current road conditions. In that case, automotive active safety system can be recurrent informed about the state of road surface. The possibility for identification of road and environmental properties in a way to create the adaptive, self-learning algorithms is distinctive feature of proposed control strategy.
Keywords:fuzzy logic, ITS, safety, simulation, tyre