Vehicle Velocity Estimation based on Data fusion

by Kalman Filtering for ABS

Melika Amiri

Bijan Moaveni

Graduate student in electrical engineering, Islamic Azad

university, Science and Research
Tehran, Iran
Melika 64@yahoo.com

Assistant Professor, School of Railway Engineering

Electrical Railway, Iran University of Science Technology
Tehran, Iran
B moavani@iust.ac.ir

Abstract:

During the braking process, because of difference

between the wheel velocity and the linear vehicle velocity, the slip
occurred and it is made vehicle to lose steering control and the
friction force, which stops the vehicle, is greatly reduced. To solve
this problem, the Antilock Break System (ABS) was proposed,
which monitors the wheel velocity and the vehicle velocity to
detect and control the slip. The main stage in slip evaluation is
vehicle velocity estimation and there are several methods for it,
where each one has its advantages and drawbacks. In this paper,
an analytical and practical solution to estimate the accurate
vehicle velocity estimation based on the data fusion algorithms
and during the breaking process is developed. Finally, simulation
results show the effectiveness of the new methodology.

Keywords: Antilock Break System, Slip Control,

Velocity Estimation, Datafusion.

I.

Vehicle

INTRODUCTION

The main objective of an Antilock Brake System (ABS) is

to prevent wheels from locking up and slipping during the
braking. Wheel locking up often happens when braking on a
wet and slippery road or during a severe braking. During wheel
lockup, vehicle loses steering control and reduces the friction
force. In normal drive condition, the vehicle velocity is almost
same as the wheel velocity. The speedometer calculates and
displays the vehicle speed by measuring the wheel rotation
velocity and multiplying it with the nominal wheel radius.
However, when a wheel becomes locked and slips, the vehicle
velocity and the wheel velocity are quite different. In ABS, the
wheel slip, A, is defmed to indicate the difference between the
wheel velocity and the vehicle velocity.

A=

V-rOJ

( 1)

where v is the actual vehicle velocity over the ground, OJ

is the wheel angular velocity and r is the rolling radius (wheel
and tire). In normal driving, v = OJr and therefore A= O. In

978-1-4673-1148-9112/$3l.00 2012 IEEE

severe braking, it is common to have OJ = 0 while

thus A= 1, which is called wheel lockup [1].

v*-O ,

The ABS producers companies only utilize the wheel

angular speed from the wheel speed sensors and they don't like
to use other sensors to measure the vehicle longitudinal speed.
So, it is important to estimate the vehicle longitudinal velocity
and wheel angular speed using only measured wheel angular
speed for the advanced slip control maneuver of ABS. In recent
years, many efforts have been focused on the issue of the
vehicle velocity estimation such as linear and nonlinear
Adaptive filters, Kalman filer and etc., that each of them have
advantages and drawbacks [1,2,3,4,5].
In the 2000s, Adaptive filter [1], as a simple and efficient
method introduced that the estimation is solely based on the
wheel velocity measurements without any additional
information on the vehicle acceleration. This adaptive
nonlinear filter method based on the characteristics of the
wheel velocities and knowledge of the ABS operation and a
heuristic assumption is made. This methodology estimates the
vehicle longitude velocity by using of the available data from
wheel speed and the ABS operation. The contributors show
that the wheel velocities periodically reflect the actual vehicle
velocity. But, since the road surface conditions and the vehicle
deceleration are unknown to begin with, the estimation error
seems inevitable when the ABS is first applied. Although, in
results of nonlinear Adaptive filter experiments mentioned that
primer error is inevitable, but as in this article can be seen, this
problem is one of the drawbacks of the method and
unfortunately, there is a lot of distortions and fluctuations in
vehicle velocity estimation [6].
Another main method in velocity estimation of vehicles is
Kalman filtering method. Although, this method can provide
more accurate estimation and convergent to real velocity, but
there is a high transient error [2],[6].
In this paper, by studying and analyzing the performance of
Kalman filter and nonlinear Adaptive filter to estimate linear
velocity, a new solution is presented to reduce fluctuations and
distortion, without complex calculations and the problems of
the previous methods. In other words, this paper presents
proper structure of data fusion with the ability to improve the
estimation of vehicle velocity.

1495

II.

VEHICLE DYNAMIC BASED ON THE LUGRE MODEL

One of the current models on vehicle dynamic, with

considering the friction is LuGre model where all researchers
and engineers use it as a powerful model in all of the speed
estimation methods [7]. The LuGre model can describe the
nonlinear friction characteristics, which is required between
two level contacts. Many researchers have used this model
because it has a simple structure to be implemented in the
design of the controller and can represent most of the friction
characteristics. A quarter-vehicle model with the average
lumped LuGre dynamic tire friction model was adopted to
design the observer as shown in Fig. 1.

where (Jo is the nonnalized rubber longitudinal lumped

stiffness, (Jl is the nonnalized rubber longitudinal lumped
damping,

(J2

the nonnalized viscous relative damping,

Fn

is

the rolling resistance and (Jv is rolling resistance coefficient.

III.

VELOCITY ESTIMATION

In this section, we briefly review the mam methods m

vehicle velocity estimation.
Figure l .

A. Adaptive Nonlinearfilter

A quarter-vehicle model [2]

The equations of the quarter-vehicle based on the LuGre

model are [8]:

=-

J OJ

In this method, the velocity estimation is solely based on

the wheel velocity measurements. In nonnal drive condition,
the vehicle velocity is ahnost same as the wheel velocity and in
designing filter, the input of filter is wheel angular speed
multiplies with the nominal wheel radius and the output is
linear vehicle velocity. However, during the wheel lockup or
near lockup situation, this relationship no longer holds.

(Jo IV I
r z
r -8 --h (v )
r

-rFx

In [1], a nonlinear filter as (5) was presented.

-uT

v'(t) -Rgsign(v (t) -rm(t))

=

(5)

(2)
y

In (5),

met) is

(t

0)

Yo

the input and

vet) is

the output.

Rg is

an

adjustment parameter of filter sensitivity and Yo is the initial

value of the speed while braking. The output vet) will
where

is the LuGre friction internal state,

vr

- rO)

is

the relative velocity, 8 is an unknown parameter of the

tire/road condition, which can suitably describe the road
characteristics. Also Ils is the normalized static friction
coefficient, Ilc is the normalized Coulomb friction, vs is the
Stribeck relative velocity,

uT

is the braking torque, J is the

rotational inertia of quarter vehicle mass and m is the vehicle

mass. Also, the braking force can be expressed as a follow:

converge to the input

rm(t)

in steady state. The change of

vet) is limited by R g. When vet) represents the actual vehicle

velocity, the change of v(t) reflects the road surface condition.
In implementations, the value of Rg, which limits the change
of v(t). is continuously updated. It makes the nonlinear filter
adaptive to the road surface changes. An initial value of the
parameter Rg , is selected to reflect the maximum vehicle
deceleration.

B.

Kalman Filter Approach

The Kahnan Filter (KF) is one of the most widely used

methods for tracking and estimation due to its optimality,
tractability and robustness. KF is a recursive predicted filter

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based on state techniques and recurrent algorithms. In fact, this

filter is the collection of mathematical equations to estimate
effective state for a dynamic system. The performance of
dynamic system can disrupt with some white noises. For a
linear noisy system as below

XK+I =AKXK+WK
ZK+I =HK+IXK+I+VK+I

(6)

We have KF equations as (7) [10].

XK+I1K =AKXK1K
T
PK+IIK =AKPK+IIKAK+ Q
KK+I =PK+IIKHk+I(HK+IPK+IIKHk+1+RK+1)-1
XK+IIK+I =XK+11K+KK+I(ZK+I-HK+IXK+IIK)
PK+IIK+I = (1-KK+IHK+I)PK+I1K
IV.

(7)

Figure 2.

Diagram of series fusion method

Th e Mean Filter

B.

In this method, similar to the previous, we use of two

wheels speed to estimate the longitude vehicle velocity. At the
first, we employ the wheels speed information with different
initial conditions separately (VI ' v2). Then all measured
wheels speed, like that series fusion method, are processed. It
means that using adaptive filter for each wheel separately,
longitude vehicle velocity is estimated and the estimations are
used as initial conditions of kalman filter used (VI' v2 ). At last,
with applying the mean filter, the final speed estimation is
obtained (v). Figure 3 shows a simple block diagram of the
fusion strategy.

First wheel <q

luGre model

VEHICLE VELOCITY ESTIMATION USING DATA FUSION

Mean
filter

STRATEGY

Data fusion is a research area that is growing rapidly due to

the fact that it provides means for combining pieces of
information coming from different sources/sensors, resulting in
ameliorated overall system performance (improved decision
making, increased detection capabilities, diminished number of
false alarms, improved reliability in various situations at hand)
with respect to separate sensors/sources[ll]. Different data
fusion methods have been developed in order to optimize the
overall system output in a variety of applications. There are a
lot of various methods for multi sensor data fusion that using
Kalman filter in the data fusion process [12]. In this section, a
new method to estimate the vehicle velocity based on the data
fusion are presented.

A. Series Fusion

In this method, we use the speeds of two wheels of vehicle

as the inputs to the data fusion algorithm. In order to, estimated
speed from Adaptive filter ( va ) as the initial conditions of
vehicle velocity in the first Kalman filter and the estimated
speed from the first Kalman filter (VI) as initial conditions of
second KF as series is used. Note that the simple block diagram
of this method is shown in Figure 2.

second wheel
luGre model

Figure 3.

C.

Diagram ofthe Mean filter method

Measurementfusion

In this section, the angular speeds of two wheels with

measurement fusion are fused. In order to, at the first step the
wheels angular speed are brought from wheels (01, 0lJ.) and
their vector

[ :]

is used in Kalman filter, then the final

speed is extracted. We use the simplified structure as equation

(8) for measurement fusion:
(8)

Kalm
an
filter

First wheel <q

LuGre model

that

RI

is measurement covariance matrix of first wheel

and R2 is measurement covariance matrix of second one. Fig

4 is the block diagram of this method.

Adaptive filter

LuGre model
Second wheel

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figure
small.
Measurement
Fusion

Figure 4.

SIMULATION RESULTS

In all simulations, LuGre model and following parameters

are used [8]:

Figure 13 shows the speed estimation of measurement

fusion method which converges to the real speed except of
early moments. Figure 14 prove that error in early moments is
large. It is worth noting that in the simulation, we consider the
different speeds from two wheels.
To analyze the simulations result, in table 2 the mean
square of estimation errors for all estimation methods are
introduced. The results show that the series fusion approach
has the best performance.

m =1701.1kg,r=0.323m,8=1.

VEHICLE PARAMETERS [9]

TABLE I.

shows that the amount of estimation error is too

Tn figure 11, the simulation result of mean filter method to

estimate the vehicle velocity is demonstrated. The figure shows
the converging estimated to the real speed. as the result and this
method to be ok for vehicle velocity estimation without
considering the value of error in early moments. With
considering Fig 12, the value of error in early moments is seen.
The error of series in comparison with mean filter error is very
little. The applied calculations in this method are easy and this
the main advantage of the mean filter approach, while it has
much error than series fusion method.

"

block diagram of measurement fusion

v.

10

adaptiwfilter

Parameter

Value

Unit

Parameter

Value

Unit

(Jo

40

[Ijm]

f..Lc

0.5

[-]

(Jl

4.9487

[s /m ]

f..L.,.

0.9

[-]

(J2

0.0018

[s/m]

12.5

[m/s]

Vs

.f
(.)
o

a:l
:>

parameter of Kalman filter are as below[2]: W k ,V k are

Gaussian white noises that added to equations.
Q=

diag([10-6 10-6 10-4 D,

Po =diag ([10-6

;0 = 0
E[Wk]=[O

6
10- D,

6
10-

va

=1,

Vo =22.5

r= 0.35 m,

time (Sec)
Figure 5.

real speed and estimated speed with Adaptive filter

of.

In simulation of Adaptive filter, we used a quarter-vehicle

LuGre model and all parameters as defined in section 2. Here,
the value of R g =6 is adjusted. Figure 5 shows the real and
estimated speeds during a braking process, while we use of
ABS. It is obvious that the estimated velocity is convergent to
the real speed, but there are a lot of distortions and fluctuations.
For more accurate investigation, Figure 6 shows the estimation
error.
For Kalman filtering strategy, in the simulation a quarter vehicle LuGre model is considered. Simulation results are
shown in figure 7. Figure 8 shows the corresponding estimation
error and clearly the value of error in early moments is much
and after a few seconds has a swing around zero. But, in
simulation of data fusion, we use the half-vehicle LuGre
model. Simulation result of series fusion method is existed on
figures 9 and 10. Figure 9, shows the good result of estimation
and the estimated velocity convergent to real speed well. Also,

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error diagram in Adaptive filter

KF

with r = 0.323

--""l

Figure 11. speed estimation vhat with mean filter method

time(sec)

Figure 7.

curve of real and estimated speed with KF

l
o

\1\,

_-_

---

---

L---o---ce-Cc--e,, ec
, , - ,e-, ---c
"---c
c "c--l,,

timers",,)

-0.15

-0.2 0::-- C----c1cO--c,5c--c20:-2"c5 - 30Cc----cc35--c40:--c45:-50

-=-

Figure 12. error diagram of mean filter method

time(soc)

Figure 8.

error diagram in KF
v,

\llat,

Figure 13. Speed estimation of measurement fusion

tIs]

Fignre 9.

speed estimation of series fusion method

'5

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Fignre 14. error diagram of measurement fusion

TABLE II.

MEAN SQUARE ERROR (MSE) OF ESTIMATION METHOD

Method
Series fusion

tIs]

Figure 10. error diagram of series fusion

Measurement fusion

l . 01

Kalman filter

5. 32

->hat1
-

>hat

ol----;--"c--
I----=-=C==c=''1OO

2. 08

Mean filter method

Adaptive filter

awrage !user

MSE

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0.1755

[4]

VI.

CONCLUSION

[5]

In this paper, we present a new velocity estimation

approach based on the data fusion theory. Here, we introduce
the three novel structures to access the high accuracy in vehicle
velocity estimation. By analyzing and comparing the results,
series fusion method has the best operation in all methods. This
method solves the the problems like distortion and fluctuations
of Adaptive filter and primer error of Kalman filter.

[6]

[7]

[8]

REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]

[9]

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Control Conference, Seattle, Washington, June 1995, p 3086-3090.

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[10]
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[12]

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