AUTOMOTIVE TRACTION CONTROL SYSTEM

Lee Paul Speakman

Dr. Jihong Wang

ABSTRACT
This report details the design test and build of a traction control system for the Universities 2007 Formula student race car. Using a 3rd party program called CarSim two different types of control systems were designed and evaluated in Matlab .Initial results showed fuzzy logic can be used to implement an effective control system; however the technique of torque reduction associated with this method is too complex to integrate into a budget microcontroller. The final solution uses a simple proportional controller and fuel cut to regulate the engine torque. Simulations show performance of the car is significantly improved when traction control is fitted. The main function of the traction control system is to prevent a condition known as oversteer, which is induced when the lateral grip at the rear of the car is reduced due to excessive wheel spin. This can result in the driver loosing control of the vehicle. The other important benefit of traction control is maximizing straight line acceleration of the car.

THEORY
Traction Control is a system that limits the amount of wheel spin or 'slip' of a driven wheel. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines slip as:
(1)

INTRODUCTION
'Formula Student is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), in partnership with the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET). It promotes careers and excellence in engineering, by challenging university students to design, build, develop, market and compete as a team with a small single seater racing car. [1] University of Liverpool Motorsport (ULM) will compete against other top universities from around the world in a 4 day event held at Silverstone race circuit in the United Kingdom. Last year the team competed in class one against 80 other teams. In only its debut season ULM finished in the top half of the overall rankings. In 2007 the team intends to build on this success, aiming for a strong top 10 finish in the event. The aim of this project is to produce a fully working real time traction control system for the University of Liverpool 2007 Formula student car.

Where v Is the vehicle velocity, r is the radius of the driven wheel and is the angular velocity of the wheel. From figure 1 it can be seen that longitudinal and lateral grip is a function of wheel slip. To achieve maximum acceleration the system must operate at the peak of the longitudinal slip curve. For stability during corners the system must operate at the peak of the lateral curve. The traction control system must be able to recognise if the car is cornering or travelling in a straight line and optimize the slip levels for the given situation

JUSTIFICATION
The team members must drive the car in a variety of events, which are designed to test all aspects of the vehicle performance. These events include acceleration tests, skid pan, and timed laps around a set course. The formula student cars are lightweight (250kg), coupled with a powerful engine and short wheelbase, makes the car tricky to drive in a fast and controlled manor.

Figure 1- Grip-coefficient vs. Slip

METHODS OF REGULATING WHEEL SLIP

Wheel slip can be regulated by many different methods; each system will be discussed briefly. Brake intervention is the most common method of regulating wheel slip; controlled by applying the brakes to the slipping wheel. This method is effective, but costly to implement and can heat up the brakes which is undesirable in a race car. Engines require three elements to produce torque; these are fuel, air and a source of ignition. If any of these three are removed by a sufficient amount the engine will not produce torque. The obvious method for regulating wheel slip is to reduce the throttle angle resulting in a reduction in engine torque. This method has major disadvantages, it is expensive to implement and has a slow response time. Fuel / Ignition cut is often using in production cars. It requires no extra mechanical parts, relying solely on devices which are already in place. Modern engines use multiple cylinders to create torque; each cylinder has its own injector and spark plug. The torque can be varied by removing the fuel / ignition from one of the cylinders. For example suppressing one cylinder on a four cylinder engine will result in a 25% reduction in torque. Engine torque reduction can be reduced by altering the timing of the ignition event. The timing of the ignition event is critical in determining the torque produced by the engine. The further the ignition spark is retarded, the lower the torque produced by the engine will be. Ignition timing is infinitely variable thus giving greater control over engine torque. This method also allows the torque to be controlled every combustion cycle, which provides a quicker and smoother response than ignition / fuel cut. This system was investigated further.

The traction control system was developed in Matlab and tested using a 3rd Party program called CarSim, which is used to simulate the dynamics of the ULM2006 car. Initial results showed fuzzy logic is an effective control system, regulating wheel spin to within 1 % of the target value.

Figure 2 - Wheel Slip regulation

Upon further investigation it was found the method of torque reduction was too hard to implement using cheap microcontrollers, and within the limited time frame of the project. A simple proportional control system was designed using the fuel cut method to reduce engine torque. While the system is not as effective at maintaining target slip as the fuzzy logic controller, the performance gains in terms of acceleration are comparable. This is because so long as the traction control system limits the slip to below the peak of the slip-friction coefficient curve, [FIGURE I] acceleration is maximized. Once the traction control system had been validated, it was delivered in real time. The system is based on two PIC18F2680's and utilizes the vehicles onboard CAN Network to retrieve wheel and engine speed data.

CONCLUSION
DESIGN OF TRACTION CONTROL SYSTEM
'The design of a traction control system is complicated by several factors. The system is highly non-linear, vehicle parameters and road conditions may change significantly with time, and the tire-road interaction is difficult to measure and estimate' [2] Fuzzy Logic was chosen for the control system as it has considerable advantages over other systems, such as conventional PID controllers and probability theory etc. Due to the limited time frame of this project, time must be managed wisely on developing a suitable control system and then delivering the system in real time. Fuzzy logic allows the rapid and cost effective development of control systems based on linguistic 'if-then' rules and the experience of the human operator, no mathematical model of the plant (vehicle) is required. Overall the project has met its aims and a categorical success. The traction control system cost less than $100 to build, and it increased performance by 0.54 seconds over a 75m distance. Compare this with the Sl0000's of dollars spent by other teams, who purchase super soft tyres for exclusive use in the acceleration event, and the performance gain of a traction control can truly be appreciated. For this I feel my individual project has greatly benefited the team this year, and will continue to in future years.

REFERENCES
[1] www.formulastudent.com [2] Tan, H. S. 1988, Adaptive and Robust Controls with Application to Vehicle Traction Control. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley