T.R.I.C.K. 2.0: Enhanced Vehicle Dynamics Analysis and Estimation Harnessing Advanced Vehicle Sensors

<div>Automotive signal processing is dealt with in several contributions that propose various techniques to make the most out of the available data, typically for enhancing safety, comfort, or performance. Specifically, the accurate estimation of tire–road interaction forces is of high interest in the automotive world. A few years ago the T.R.I.C.K. tool was developed, featuring a vehicle model processing experimental data, collected through various vehicle sensors, to compute several relevant virtual telemetry channels, including interaction forces and slip indices. Following years of further development in collaboration with motorsport companies, this article presents T.R.I.C.K. 2.0, a thoroughly renewed version of the tool. Besides a number of important improvements of the original tool, including, e.g., the effect of the limited slip differential, T.R.I.C.K. 2.0 features the ability to exploit advanced sensors typically used in motorsport, including laser sensors, potentiometers, and load cells installed on shock absorbers, anti-roll bars, and brake pressure sensors. Such information is harnessed in purposely-devised novel methodologies for estimating key quantities including roll angle, aerodynamic forces, and camber angle, all affecting tire–road interaction forces and friction ellipses. This is made possible by a completely modular structure of the tool able to employ the most accurate formulation depending on the sensors actually available.</div>