Wheel slip control via second-order sliding-mode generation

During skid braking and spin acceleration, the driving force exerted by the tires is reduced considerably, and the vehicle cannot speed up or brake as desired. It may become very difficult to control the vehicle under these conditions. To solve this problem, a second-order sliding-mode traction controller is presented in this paper. The controller design is coupled with the design of a suitable sliding-mode observer to estimate the tire-road adhesion coefficient. The traction control is achieved by maintaining the wheel slip at a desired value. In particular, by controlling the wheel slip at the optimal value, the proposed traction control enables antiskid braking and antispin acceleration, thus improving safety in difficult weather conditions, as well as stability during high-performance driving. The choice of second-order sliding-mode control methodology is motivated by its robustness feature with respect to parameter uncertainties and disturbances, which are typical of the automotive context. Moreover, the proposed second-order sliding-mode controller, in contrast to conventional sliding-mode controllers, generates continuous control actions, thus being particularly suitable for application to automotive systems.