A comprehensive comparison of chassis systems coordination approaches

One of the main concerns of automotive industry is autonomous vehicles. Not only equipment suppliers but also new entering actors are racing to develop safer automotive systems. Consequently, the car manufacturer has to integrate different systems to control the same vehicle. This paper discusses the different architectures adopted to handle chassis systems interactions. Several car manufacturers study the influence of each system on the overall vehicle. They then add an additional coordination layer downstream the different systems to mitigate their possible conflicts. Here we propose a new approach that consists on managing systems interaction upstream the different systems. Coordination is based on control allocation techniques that take into account several vehicle states to find optimal commands distribution. Both approaches have been compared. Simulations showed the benefits that could offer the upstream approach in terms of safety and flexibility. The relevance of this approach is expected to grow with the increasing number of chassis systems.