Lateral vehicle-dynamic observers: simulations and experiments

This paper proposes and compares four observers designed to calculate vehicle sideslip angle and lateral tyre forces. The different observers are derived from the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), the single-track model and use different tyre-force models. The first three tyre-force models are the linear model, the Burckhardt model and the Pacejka model. The remaining tyre-force model, the 'linear adaptive' model, is used to correct wheel cornering stiffness errors. The paper describes observers, along with a road-friction identification method. Observers are first compared in a simulation context using a professional vehicle simulator. Subsequently, observers are applied to experimental data.