Collision Strength Estimation and Preemptive Steering Control for Post-Impact Vehicle Motion Control

This study proposes a preemptive steering control strategy that takes into consideration post-impact vehicle stability. To reduce the risk of subsequent crashes after an initial impact, sufficiently fast decision and control are desired for stabilizing the vehicle motion. As opposed to active steering systems for lane or path tracking, the proposed control system needs to assess the strength of impact from the other vehicle and predict the resulting vehicle motion. To achieve faster and more effective control responses, impact prediction and estimation schemes that are performed before and at an early stage of a crash are proposed. Based on the predicted or estimated collision strength, a proper steering action is taken to drive the vehicle motion to a desired final state. Simulations and analysis results of the proposed estimation and prediction algorithm are presented, followed by the demonstration that shows the usefulness of the proposed steering control algorithm.