Tracking and Fault-Tolerant Controller Design for Uncertain Steer-by-Wire Systems Using Model Predictive Control

Abstract This study presents a tracking and fault-tolerant controller architecture for uncertain steer-by-wire (SbW) systems using model predictive control in the presence of actuator malfunction and the nonlinear properties of tire lateral stiffness coefficients. By changing the internal model, the model predictive control (MPC) technique was used to achieve optimal tracking performance under the actuator output limitation variation problem and uncertain system parameters. System parameters and state estimates were simultaneously provided by the fault detection and isolation modules to detect actuator failure using the coupling estimation approach. The estimation accuracy was further improved by considering the replacement errors as virtual noise, which was also estimated during the estimation process. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed fault-tolerant control technique can identify motor faults and conduct fault-tolerant control based on fault identification, showing good front-wheel steering angle tracking performance under both normal and fault conditions.