Intelligent vehicle self-stabilization and path tracking control in mild collisions

To address vehicle instability after a lateral collision and the risk of secondary collisions, a phased pre-steering integrated control strategy is proposed. This strategy involves a pre-steering operation, followed by phased control after the collision. In the first phase, a layered control approach is used to maintain vehicle stability. The upper layer generates a yaw moment using a two-degree-of-freedom vehicle dynamics model and sliding mode control, while the lower layer dynamically distributes the four-wheel drive torques based on the load ratio. In the second phase, a model predictive control (MPC) approach, based on a three-degree-of-freedom vehicle dynamics model, ensures that the vehicle follows the desired trajectory. Two scenarios were designed on the MATLAB/Simulink and CarSim co-simulation platform: a crossroads intersection and parallel lanes. In the crossroads scenario, the robustness of the pre-steering integrated controller was evaluated by varying vehicle collision forces and road frictions. The results demonstrate that the proposed pre-steering integrated control strategy offers strong stability under the two collision scenarios. It effectively resists external disturbances, accurately tracks the desired path, and successfully prevents secondary collisions, thereby validating the effectiveness of the control strategy.