A variable structure extended Kalman filter for vehicle sideslip angle estimation on a low friction road

Sideslip angle plays an important role in vehicle stability control. However, it is difficult to measure directly unless some complex and expensive devices are employed. Thus, sideslip angle estimated by vehicle states such as lateral acceleration, yaw rate and so on is required in real-time vehicle stability control. A new variable structure extended Kalman filter integrated with the sideslip angle rate feedback algorithm and damping item is proposed in this paper. The main idea of the sideslip angle rate feedback algorithm is to compensate the model error caused by road friction estimation inaccuracy while that of the damping item is to suppress the error accumulation. The estimated results are compared with the real values obtained by the differential global position system on a low friction road and it shows that the proposed methodology can provide accurate sideslip angle to some extent for vehicle stability control.