Fuzzy control system for recovering direction after spinning

The progressive increase of tire-size has concurred to a sensitive improvement of the adherence with consequent increase of car safety. However, the wide tires have problems to expel the water in excess in heavy rain condition. For this reason the phenomenon of the aquaplaning is increasingly felt and is the cause of several automotive accidents. It is not a case that nearly all tire manufacturers supply "rain" tires and adherence in wet conditions is highly advertised. A typical accident happens when aquaplaning occurs in motorway at high speed. One or more tires lose adherence and the car begins to spin. If the pilot is not able to regain the initial direction, the car may hit the guardrail or another car. In this case the modern control systems like the ESP (Electronic Stability Program) and the ASR (Anti Skid Regelung) do not have time or are not able to manage a pre-spin or spin situation at elevated slip-angles. In this paper, a fuzzy control system able to deal with these conditions is introduced. The car has been simulated with a 9 DOF lumped-mass model that does not take into account suspensions and it considers a rigid car on smooth asphalt. The model of adhesion of the tire, instead, takes into account the effect of transverse forces on the longitudinal adherence. An expert pilot controls a high-speed spin with difficulty also. In this paper, a fuzzy control system that is able to control the brake torque on each single tire has been considered. The fuzzy control system works quite well and the car does not even enter in a true spin if enough adherence is present or if the slippery zone on asphalt is limited.