ISEP 2011

REAL TIME MEASUREMENTS OF INFLUENCE

OF CROSSWIND ON DYNAMICS OF
ROAD VEHICLES
Marko Perkovič1, Milan Batista1, Dimitrij Najdovski2, Franc Dimc1
1
Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za pomorstvo in promet, Portorož
2
X3DATA, Ljubljana

Abstract on board the Attitude and Heading Reference System

Different vehicles driving along roads exposed to a strong
cross wind can be forced from their expected path and even be
blown over. Even the driver’s natural tendency to compensate
by manipulating the steering wheel may add to the likelihood
of an accident. This paper will primarily present the
equipment used for real time data acquisition and methods
used to determine the relations between wind speed and
direction and the vehicle dynamic.
Keywords
Real time measurements, cross-wind, vehicle dynamic
(AHRS). One of them (MTi-G) was combined with GPS
and a static pressure sensor. Within MTi-G, data from
internal sensors and GPS are fused in an onboard Kalman
filter (XKF - see figure 1) to yield real-time output of
vehicle dynamics. For the larger vehicles two additional
GPS receivers are used with positioning frequency of 5 Hz.
Another GPS is used to synchronize PC time every minute
[8].

INTRODUCTION

Vehicle dynamics is a part of engineering for the most

part based on classical mechanics, encompassing the
interaction of a driver, vehicle, load and environment. Cross
wind as a part of environmental influence on vehicle
dynamics will be the main consideration of this paper,
focusing on equipment used for real time data acquisition.
The force of the wind can blow a vehicle over or cause it to
slide sideways. Determining whether the vehicle will be Figure 1: MTi-G (IMU/GPS) Architecture overview
blown over before it slides or whether it will slide before it
is blown over is a complex problem [1 - 7]. Measuring real Magnetic Compass
time wind speed and direction around a vehicle and A magnetic compass is used as an additional sensor to
monitoring a vehicle’s yawed condition (yaw angle IMU, calculating heading to further evaluate sudden
represents the rotation of a vehicle about the gravity vector) changes. With a frequency of ten measurements per second
we can obtain more data to calculate whether it is safe to it is possible to detect “anomalies” in heading when wind
drive in certain wind conditions. When a vehicle is in a force influences driving direction. The A4020 compass by
yawed condition it means that, in addition to the “wind” Autonnic contains a fluxgate surrounded by high-precision
resulting from the relative road velocity, a crosswind interface circuits which together with offset nulling
component exists. The interest in aerodynamic loads on sequence allow a microprocessor to acquire a binary value
road vehicles in a yawed condition started to develop in the from two orthogonal sensors of the Earth’s magnetic field.
1950s. The processor calculates the vector from these values, using
MATERIALS a calibration table to correct for local field disturbance
errors, offsetting the result and then presenting direction
IMU and GPS
The integration of an inertial sensor (calibrated 3D
accelerometer, 3D rate gyroscope, 3D magnetometer,
barometric altimeter) and L1 GPS (SABAS – Satellite
Based Augmentation System to improve accuracy and
reliability) receiver unit provides, in real-time, the vehicle
position, velocity, acceleration, angular velocity, and
orientation, from which vehicle dynamics parameters such
as slip-angle and roll-compensated lateral velocity can be
derived. In our case three MEMS IMU devices were used
ISEP 2011

Figure 2: Fluxgate magnetic compass Table 2: Microphones performance table

Accelerometers
To obtain precise transversal offsets of a moving
vehicle, especially for longer or multi-axial or combined
(trailers), additional accelerometers should be placed at
corners or above the wheels. We have used one tri-axial
accelerometer with a sensitivity of 50 mV/G and three very
sensitive tri-axial accelerometers with a measurement range
of ±2 g pk.

Table 1: Accelerometers performance table

Figure 5: Microphone

Differential pressure measurements

Cross wind pressure can be distributed quite differently
around the vehicle’s longitudinal sections and this is the
case especially for long vehicles like tractors-trailers or
semi-trailers. Four channel Honeywell Sensing ASDX
sensors can measure absolute,
differential, and gauge
pressures. The ASDX-DO
sensors with compensated 14-
bit digital output provide either
an I2C or SPI digital interface
for reading pressure over the
specified full scale pressure
Figure 3: Tri-axial accelerometers span and temperature range.
Figure 6: ASDX-DO differential pressure sensor
Anemometers
For precise real time wind flow measurements around a
Force Transducers and Load Cells
vehicle two sonic anemometers are used. One 2D sampling
We have used 1 and 2kNm force transducers and load
wind at 4 Hz mounted at the rear part and
cells to measure static and dynamic tensile and compressive
one other 3D professional anemometer
loads (Fx,Fy,Fz and Mx,My,Mz), with virtually no
with a capability of 32 samplings per
displacement as the effect of shifting the load from one
second mounted in front of the vehicle.
cross wind side of the vehicle to the wheels on the other
The Ultrasonic 2D Anemometer consists
side.
of 4 bi-directional ultrasonic transducers,
in pairs of 2 opposite each other. The
transducers act both as acoustic
transmitters and acoustic receivers. The
respective measurement paths and their
measurement direction are selected via
electronic control. When a measurement
starts, a sequence of 4 individual
measurements in all 4 directions of the
measurement paths are carried out at
maximum speed. 3D anemometer
consists of two transducer heads enabling
precise measurment of vertical wind
component.
Figure 4: 3D anemometer

Microphones - Sound imaging

A sufficient number (four) of reference PCB
microphones are distributed around the vehicle in order to
observe sound fields in the frequency range of interest.
Those measurements are complementary to the
anemometers and pressure sensors described in 2.4. This is
a good method of capturing gusts of wind. Figure 7: Force Transducers and Load Cells
ISEP 2011

Distance Measurements METHODS AND RESULTS

When the cross wind hits the trailer the angle between
the truck and trailer can be measured by a Noptel CMP A variety of tools have been adopted and different data
sensor that uses a wide sources were utilized where Inertial Measurement was a key
laser beam (up to 200 x sensor of the Inertial Navigation System. Precise Inertial 3D
200 mm @10 m) that data (slip angle, longitudinal, lateral accelerations and rate
covers wider measurement of turn) were obtained by setting sensor alignment with
areas at short distances respect to the vehicle frame and integrating GPP data.
(Used with a retro- Translations (transversal) are derived with accelerations
reflector). double integrated to correct for the angle of roll. To
Figure 8: Noptel CMP laser determine wind force, which affects vehicle driving
stability, in addition to the anemometers pressure sensors
around the vehicle were mounted. Such a system enables
Rotary Encoder
the study of effects of the longitudinal location of the centre
When a cross wind hits the vehicle, steering corrections
of pressure, the under-steer gradient and the steering
are needed to stabilize the driving direction. Wheel
sensitivity on the crosswind stability [6, 7]. To further
rotations can be measured by applying a high resolution
understand load distribution over axis and wheel load cells
shaft encoder. For that the
and force transducers are used.
Autonnic’s low-noise
The first results from first test drive are presented within
fluxgate magnetometer
next Figure 12. The green line shows car speed where GPS
A3030 is used--based on
signals are lost when the vehicle enters a tunnel. At the
technology that has created
same time it can be observed that wind conditions in the
an industrial component
tunnel are more stable than outside. Apparent wind speed
which can resolve shaft
and wind direction correspond to the sped and course of the
angles to 1 part in 4000 –
vehicle, so true wind is close to zero. The blue line indicates
equivalent to 12bits.
some wind gusts which, with a direction close to the
Figure 9: Absolute encoder opposite of the vehicle heading results in a sudden drop in
speed.
Video Recording This Figure 13 is a magnification of the highest wind
During all experiments we use gust (15 seconds). The blue lines show longitudinal
video cameras to record the accelerations; red corresponds to the transversal; the purple
driver’s reactions, the movement diagonal line describes the yaw of the vehicle; the top line
of the vehicle, oncoming traffic, shows the roll angle. A comparison between the red and roll
and whatever general conditions lines illustrates the correspondence between roll and
that are variable. In the future we transversal acceleration.
expect that by utilizing the smart
camera we will be able to apply
object tracking methodology to
more precisely obtain the offset
movement data [9].
Figure 10: Video imaging – object tracking

Data Acquisition System

LabVIEW, a graphical programming language by
National Instruments®, is used using the PC plug-in Data
Acquisition (DAQ) boards for computerized measurement
of real world analog signals. The plug-in DAQ was used for
acquiring data from Accelerometers, Force Transducers,
Load Cells, Microphones, and Smart Cameras. Other data,
from IMU, GPS, Anemometers, Encoders, Compass and
Cameras, were collected by PC through Moxa Uport USB
to a Serial Hub device. IMU data are processed with MT
manager software applying different Kalman filters. Wind,
wheel position, heading, and positioning are visualized and
layered over navigational charts. Using the NaviSailor
application; real time position, course, heading, apparent
and true wind are depicted. This application is capable at
same time of archiving raw data for further post-processing.
Figure 11: Test vehicle with visible anemometers and GPS
sensors
ISEP 2011
Figure 12: Vehicle speed, wind speed and wind direction
Figure 13: Track, accelerations, yawing and roll angle
CONCLUSIONS
On exposed roads, cross winds acting laterally on the
side of the vehicle are commonly as strong as the vehicle
velocity induced air-speed; the air pressure acting sideways
can thus be as high as the drag force in the driving
direction, potentially resulting in a catastrophic loss of
stability. The application of one testing moment is seen
here, but as the experiment is ongoing we are unable to
present the results of the rest of our measurements. The
expectation is that we will be use our results, including
those from all sensors described, to determine highway
safety parameters.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank Marino Bajec, Peter Vidmar and
David Nemec, for their support.
REFERENCES
1. Georg Rill (2009), Vehicle Dynamics, Hochschule
Regensburg University of Applied Sciences
2. Graham R Greatrix, Wind Forces, www.greatrix.co.uk/
3. Soon-Duck Kwon, Dong Hyawn Kim, Ho Sung Song,
Il-Keun Lee and Jun-Sang Cho, Korean Program for
Enhancing Driving Stability of Vehicles in High Winds,
The Seventh Asia-Pacific Conference on Wind
Engineering, November 8-12, 2009, Taipei, Taiwan
4. Skuli Thordarson, Bjorn Olafsson, Weather induced
road accidents, winter maintenance and user
information, Transport Research Arena Europe 2008,
Ljubljana
5. Thordarson, S. & Snæbjörnsson, J. (2006). Traffic
accidents and wind conditions, parts I & II. Reports for
ICERA and The Icelandic Board for Road Traffic Safety
Research.
ISEP 2011

6. Thordarson, S. (2006). ‘Traffic safety on wind-exposed

roads in Iceland’. Nordic Road and, Transport Research,
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