LAUSR

Abstract Faults in an air brake system affect the performance of Heavy Commercial Road Vehicles (HCRVs). One of the major faults in the air brake system is the “out-of-adjustment”of pushrod due to excessive brake wear, which may cause a significant yaw angle deviation from the current path and an increase in stopping distance. Hence, this paper aims to design a controller that would maintain the vehicle’s directional stability under brake fault scenario. In order to design such a controller, knowledge of vehicle side slip angle is essential, but this is not a measurable quantity. Hence, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based estimation scheme for side slip angle prediction is also proposed. As an output regulator problem, Sliding Mode Control (SMC) was used for correction of yaw angle under brake fault scenario through appropriate steering angle input. This controller provided a percentage correction of yaw angle of 93.4 % and 99.8 % respectively for fully laden and fully unladen vehicle on a high friction tire road interface surface, and the same corresponding to a low friction tire road interface was 99.8 % and 98.9 % respectively.