California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

This paper presents fuzzy logic traction controllers and their effect on longitudinal vehicle platoon systems. A fuzzy logic approach is appealing for traction control because of the non-linearities and time-varying uncertainties in traction control systems. One fuzzy controller estimates the "peak slip" corresponding to the maximum tire-road adhesion coefficient and regulates wheel slip at that value. The other fuzzy logic controller regulates wheel slip at any desired value. The controllers' performance and robustness against changing road conditions and time- varying uncertainty is evaluated by simulation. The effect of traction control on longitudinal vehicle platoon systems is studied by simulation also.