Shuo Cheng

State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety

and Energy,
Tsinghua University,
Beijing 100084, China
e-mail: chengs16@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
Ming-ming Mei
State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety
and Energy,
Tsinghua University,
Beijing 100084, China
e-mail: mmm16@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
Xu Ran
State Key Laboratory of Automotive
Safety and Energy,
Tsinghua University,
Beijing 100084, China
e-mail: ranxu@tsinghua.edu.cn
Liang Li1
State Key Laboratory of Automotive
Safety and Energy,
Tsinghua University,
Beijing 100084, China
e-mail: liangl@tsinghua.edu.cn
Lin Zhao
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical
Transmission,
Chongqing University,
Chongqing 400044, China
e-mail: linzhao@cqu.edu.cn
Adaptive Unified Monitoring
System Design for Tire-Road
Information
Knowledge of the tire-road information is not only very crucial in many active safety
applications but also significant for self-driving cars. The tire-road information mainly
consists of tire-road friction coefficient and road-tire friction forces. However, precise
measurement of tire-road friction coefficient and tire forces requires expensive equip-
ment. Therefore, the monitoring of tire-road information utilizing either accurate models
or improved estimation algorithms is essential. Considering easy availability and good
economy, this paper proposes a novel adaptive unified monitoring system (AUMS) to
simultaneously observe the tire-road friction coefficient and tire forces, i.e., vertical, lon-
gitudinal, and lateral tire forces. First, the vertical tire forces can be calculated consider-
ing vehicle body roll and load transfer. The longitudinal and lateral tire forces are
estimated by an adaptive unified sliding mode observer (AUSMO). Then, the road-tire
friction coefficient is observed through the designed mode-switch observer (MSO). The
designed MSO contains two modes: when the vehicle is under driving or brake, a slip
slope method (SSM) is used, and a recursive least-squares (RLS) identification method is
utilized in the SSM; when the vehicle is under steering, a comprehensive friction estima-
tion method is adopted. The performance of the proposed AUMS is verified by both the
MATLAB/SIMULINK CARSIM co-simulation and the real car experiment. The results demon-
strate the effectiveness of the proposed AUMS to provide accurate monitoring of tire-
road information. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4043113]
Keywords: tire-road information, monitoring, adaptive unified sliding mode observer,
mode-switch observer

1 Introduction nine degrees-of-freedom (DOF) vehicle [8]. Then, the EKF was uti-
lized as a robust tire force estimator, which was validated against
Active safety systems including antilock braking system, yaw
results from strain-gaged wheel rims [9]. Afterward, many EKF-
stability control system, and rollover prevention control system
based tire force estimators were designed [10–12]. Two observers
have been equipped widely in automotive industry [1–3]. With the
based on the EKF and unscented Kalman filter (UKF) were pro-
development of self-driving car, many advanced driving assis-
posed by Ref. [13], and experimental results demonstrated that
tance systems are being studied, such as adaptive cruise control
UKF is a superior alternative, especially when the system presents
[4], vehicle collision avoidance [5], and active front steering sys-
strong nonlinearities. Some tire-force estimation algorithms have
tem [6,7]. Besides, further research still needs to be done to
been applied to vehicle dynamics control. For example, Hsiao pro-
develop more advanced technologies. Knowledge of vehicle
posed an observer-based traction force control scheme and it could
dynamics states is crucial for both active safety control systems
be robust with respect to variations of road conditions and tire
but also self-driving technologies. It is widely known, chassis sta-
model uncertainties [14]. Cho et al. designed a scheme for longitu-
bility and performance depend strongly on the forces generated at
dinal/lateral tire-force estimation and it was integrated into a unified
the tire contact patch. As a consequence, tire-road information
chassis control system, i.e., vehicle stability control [15].
must be monitored.
In addition to the observation of tire forces, the estimation of
How to obtain vehicle dynamics states has been widely dis-
road-tire friction coefficient is also of great importance. Both the
cussed in the previous literatures. Three kinds of methods can be
active safety control systems and self-driving technologies require
utilized to obtain tire forces: (1) estimation algorithms, (2) physi-
that tire forces are within their friction limits [16]. In Ref. [17], A
cal or empirical-tire-model calculation, and (3) direct measure-
Kalman-filter based algorithm was designed and it was supported
ment. However, tire-force measurement equipment is very
by a change detection algorithm to give reliable and accurate esti-
expensive and the calibration of a tire model requires extensive
mation of the slip slop. Rajamani et al. explored the development
tests, so the tire force estimation algorithm is practical. Some
of algorithms for reliable estimation of independent friction coef-
researchers focused on the estimation of tire forces. For example,
ficients at each individual wheel of the vehicle [18]. In Ref. [19],
Ray proposed an extended Kalman filter (EKF) observer to esti-
characteristics of different random road profiles were investigated
mate the state and longitudinal and lateral tire force histories of a
upon considering wheelbase filtering effect. A vehicle lateral
velocity and tire-road friction coefficient estimation method was
1
Corresponding author. proposed by Ref. [20]. In Ref. [21], a method which first com-
Contributed by the Dynamic Systems Division of ASME for publication in the bined auxiliary particle filter and the iterated extended Kalman fil-
JOURNAL OF DYNAMIC SYSTEMS, MEASUREMENT, AND CONTROL. Manuscript received
April 10, 2018; final manuscript received October 15, 2018; published online March ter was proposed. Moreover, a novel estimation of road adhesion
27, 2019. Assoc. Editor: Vladimir Vantsevich. coefficient based on tire aligning torque distribution was brought

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 forward [22]. Moreover, some researchers studied on the estima-
tion of more vehicle dynamics states. Baffet et al. proposed a road
friction identification method, and then proposed an adaptive tire
force model that took variations in road friction into account [23].
A novel adaptive square-root cubature Kalman filter-based esti-
mator with the integral correction fusion was proposed by
Ref. [24] to observe the side-slip angle. Rath et al. proposed a
combination of nonlinear Lipschitz observer and modified super-
twisting algorithm observer to simultaneously estimate road
profile and tire road friction for automotive vehicle [25]. Acosta
et al. proposed a modular observer structure to estimate the tire
forces robustly based on EKF and road grade and bank angle
based on fuzzy logic controller [26].
It is noted that tire-road information including tire force and
road friction coefficient is important for vehicle active safety con-
trol and self-driving control. Though many tire-force estimators
so far have been designed, their performance still needs to be
improved. When the vehicle is at nonlinear state, EKF-based esti-
mators’ accuracy decreases because of the linearization method
utilized in EKF, which only ensures first-order accuracy [27].
UKF-based estimators’ stability requires the prediction matrix to
be positive definite [28]. Various road conditions cause uncer-
tainty fluctuation of tire-road friction coefficient, so its observa-
tion still need to be further researched. Researches about the
observation of tire-road information are still insufficient.
Considering easy availability and good economy, this paper
proposes a novel adaptive unified monitoring system (AUMS) to
simultaneously observe the tire-road friction coefficient and tire
forces, i.e., vertical, longitudinal, and lateral tire forces of each
wheel. The main contributions of this paper are as follows. The
vertical, longitudinal, and lateral tire forces of all the four wheels
are estimated, respectively, by an adaptive unified sliding mode
observer (AUSMO). Second, the road-tire friction coefficient of
each individual wheel is observed through the designed mode-
switch observer (MSO). The designed MSO contains two modes:
when the vehicle is under driving or brake, a slip slope method
(SSM) is used to estimate the road-tire friction coefficient of each
wheel, and a recursive least-squares (RLS) identification method
is utilized in the SSM; when the vehicle is under steering, a com-
prehensive friction estimation method is adopted. Moreover, the
proposed AUMS estimates the individual wheel tire forces and
tire-road friction coefficients using only common signals meas-
ured by sensors on-board. The paper is organized as follows: The
related models are presented in Sec. 2. Section 3 gives a detailed
description about the design of the proposed AUMS. Its perform-
ance is validated by not only MATLAB/SIMULINK and CARSIM co-
simulation but also real vehicle tests. The conclusion is presented
in Sec. 5.
2 Vehicle Dynamics Models
The vehicle longitudinal dynamics model as shown in Fig. 1, is
adopted to observe the road friction coefficient. It includes the
longitudinal motion of vehicle body and rotational motion of four
wheels as shown in below equations:
mu_ ¼ Fxf þ Fxr  Faero (1)
Iw x_ ij ¼ Tdij  Tbij  RFxij (2)
A simplified four-wheel vehicle dynamics model is utilized in the
design of AUMS to estimate the lateral tire forces (see Fig. 2).
The longitudinal, lateral and yaw motion equations which use the
tire forces of four wheels are as presented as follows:
mðu_  Vy uÞ ¼ Fxrl þ Fxrr  ðFyfl þ Fyfr Þsin d þ ðFxfl þ Fxfr Þcos d
(3)
muðb_ þ uÞ ¼ Fyrl þ Fyrr þ ðFyrl þ Fyrr Þcos d þ ðFxfl þ Fxfr Þsin d
(4)
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w
Iz u_ ¼ ðFyfl þ Fyfr Þa cos d þ ðFyfl  Fyfr Þ sin d  ðFyrl þ Fyrr Þb
2
w w
þðFxfl þ Fxfr Þa sin d  ðFxfl  Fxfr Þ cos d  ðFxrl  Fxrr Þ
2 2
(5)
The relationship between the longitudinal tire force and longitudi-
nal slip ratio of each tire is shown in Fig. 3. The longitudinal slip
ratio is determined by the difference between the vehicle velocity
u and wheel speed Rxij as presented in the below equation:
8
> Rxij  u
>
> ; ðu_ > 0Þ
< Rxij
kij ¼ (6)
>
> Rxij  u ; ðu_  0Þ
>
:
u
When a tire works in its linear region, the longitudinal tire force
generated at each wheel is proportional to its slip ratio for any
road surface and normal force. As we all know, there is no clear
definition about when the tire begins to work in its nonlinear
region, so this paper only considers the linear tire region.
3 Design of the Adaptive Unified Monitoring System
Precise measurement of tire-road friction coefficient and tire
forces is difficult to implement without expensive equipment, for
R
example, wheel force transducers of Kistler (RoaDynV Wheel
Force Sensor S635, Kistler, Winterthur, Switzerland). They are
too expensive to be widely used in mass-produced cars. Therefore,
the monitoring of tire-road information utilizing either accurate
models or improved estimation algorithms is essential. Consider-
ing easy availability and good economy, this paper proposes a
novel AUMS to simultaneously observe the tire-road friction
coefficient and tire forces. The diagram of AUMS is shown in Fig.
4, it consists of a vertical tire force calculation block, a unified
observer of lateral and longitudinal tire force, and a road-tire fric-
tion coefficient estimation block. First, the vertical tire forces can
be calculated considering vehicle body roll and load transfer. The
longitudinal and lateral tire forces are estimated by the AUSMO.
Then, the road-tire friction coefficient is observed through the
designed MSO which utilizes RLS identification method and com-
prehensive friction estimation method.
3.1 The Calculation of Vertical Tire Force. Vehicle attitude
angles cannot be measured in automobiles which commonly do
not equip the inertial measurement unit. Therefore, this paper uses
a practical method of calculating vertical tire force considering
the effects of vehicle body roll and load transfer [3]. The calcula-
tion does not need vehicle pitch angle and roll angle which cannot
be measured by common sensors on board. The vertical tire force
Fzij can be calculated as follows:
 
mg b hg u_ bhg Vy u_
F^zfl ¼   (7)
2 a þ b gða þ bÞ gwða þ bÞ
Fig. 1 The longitudinal vehicle dynamics model
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 2 Four-wheel vehicle dynamics model

  3.2 The Adaptive Unified Sliding Mode Observer of Indi-

mg b hg u_ bhg Vy u_
F^zfr ¼  þ (8) vidual Wheel Tire Forces. The individual wheel vertical tire
2 a þ b gða þ bÞ gwða þ bÞ
forces can be obtained by the above subsection considering the
  effects of vehicle body roll and load transfer. The longitudinal and
mg a hg u_ ahg Vy u_
F^zrl ¼ þ  (9) lateral tire forces can be observed by the designed unified tire
2 a þ b gða þ bÞ gwða þ bÞ force observer which is based on the sliding mode observer. The
  unified observer estimates both longitudinal and lateral tire forces
mg a hg u_ ahg Vy u_
F^zrr ¼ þ þ (10) of four wheels simultaneously, and it only uses the common sig-
2 a þ b gða þ bÞ gwða þ bÞ nals measured by the sensors on-board.
The longitudinal tire forces of four wheels can be estimated uti-
lizing only the wheel angular speed. In order to design the longitu-
dinal tire force estimation part of the proposed AUSMO, the Eq.
(2) is transformed into the state-space model as follows:
8
< 1 R
x_ 1 ¼ x_ ij ¼ ðTdij  Tbij Þ  Fxij (11)
: y ¼ xij I w I w

Then, the system state observer can be designed as shown in the

following equation:

1 R  
^_ ij ¼ ðTdij  Tbij Þ  F^xij þ Lij xij  x
x ^ ij (12)
Iw Iw

Fig. 3 The relationship between the longitudinal tire force and where Lij represents the observer’s gain. The error of system state
longitudinal slip ratio of each tire variable is defined as the sliding mode surface, i.e., s ¼ xij  x
^ ij .

Fig. 4 Diagram of the proposed AUMS

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 y denotes the system measurement output. Then, we design the Then, the longitudinal tire force estimation part of the proposed
Lyapunov function as follows: AUSMO can be presented as follows:
s2 Iw Iw
V¼ (13) F^xij ¼  e  satðsÞ  Lij s (24)
2 R R
The derivation of Eq. (13) can be presented as follows: Similarly, the lateral tire force estimation part of the proposed
AUSMO can estimated the lateral tire forces of four wheels, uti-
V_ ¼ ss_ ¼ ðxij  x ^_ ij Þ
^ ij Þðx_ ij  x (14) lizing only the signals the wheel steering angle, and yaw rate.
Based on the 2DOF single-track vehicle model, Fyf and Fyr are
Combined the Eqs. (12) and (14), we can recalculate the deriva- decoupled as follows:
tion of Lyapunov function as follows: 8
  >
> b  m  ay þ Iz u_  Fxf ða þ bÞsin d
R R < Fyf ¼
V_ ¼ s F^xij þ s  Fxij  Lij s (15) ða þ bÞcos d (25)
Iw Iw > a  m  ay  Iz u_
>
: Fyr ¼
aþb
The longitudinal tire force Fxij is unknown and bounded input
variable, so there always exists positive constants e, if it is big We can transform Eq. (25) into the following formula:
enough, which can satisfy the following equation:
8
  >
> bm ða þ bÞcos d ða þ bÞsin d
 R  < x_ 2 ¼ u_ ¼ ay þ Fyf þ
 Fxij  Lij s < e (16) Iw Iw Iw
 I  (26)
w >
> am aþb
: x_ 2 ¼ u_ ¼ ay  Fyr
Iw Iw
Then, combined with Eqs. (15) and (16), the derivation of
Lyapunov function can be presented as the following equation: Thus, based on the Eq. (26), we can design the lateral tire force
  estimation part of the proposed AUSMO which is similar to
R R R R
V_ ¼s F^xij þs  Fxij Lij s s F^xij þses F^xij þjsje (17) Eq. (24) as follows:
Iw Iw Iw Iw
8
>
> Iw  
We define that sgn(s) and F^xij as follows: < F^yf ¼ ð
> eyf satðsÞ þ Lyf ðu  u^Þ
a þ bÞcos d
8 (27)
< 1; s > 0 >
> Iw  
> ^
F
: yr ¼  eyr sat ðs Þ þ L yr ðu  u
^ Þ
sgnðsÞ ¼ 0; s ¼ 0 (18) aþb
:
1; s < 0
Then, the lateral tire force of each wheel can be calculated as
Iw follows:
F^xij ¼  esgnðsÞ (19)
R 8
>
> F^zfl
>
> F^yfl ¼ F^yf
Then, Eq. (17) can be transformed as follows: >
> ^ ^
>
> F zfl þ F zfr
>
>
R >
> F^zfr
V_  s F^xij þ jsje ¼ sesgnðsÞ þ jsje ¼ 0 (20) > ^
> ^
>
< F yfr ¼ F^ þ F^ F yf
Iw zfl zfr
(28)
>
> F^zrl
As shown in Eq. (20), the derivation of Lyapunov function satis- >
>
>
> F^yrl ¼ F^yr
fies V_  0, the system is Lyapunov stable. Therefore, the longitu- >
> F^zrl þ F^zrr
>
>
dinal tire force can converge to the sliding mode surface. >
>
>
> F^zrr
The derivation of the error of system variable can be calculated : F^yrr ¼ ^
> F^yr
as follows: F zrl þ F^zrr
R
~_ ij ¼ esgnðsÞ  Fxij  Lij s
x (21) Therefore, the proposed AUSMO can be presented finally as
Iw shown in the following equation:
When the system variable converges to the sliding mode surface,
8
~_ ij ¼ 0. Therefore, the longitudinal tire force can be observed as
x > Iw Iw
follows: >
> F^xij ¼  esgnðsÞ  Lij s
>
>
>
> R R
Iw Iw >
>

F^xij ¼  esgnðsÞ  Lij s (22) < F^zfj Iw  

R R F^yfj ¼ eyf satðsÞ þ Lyf ðu  u^Þ
>
> F^zfl þ F^zfr ða þ bÞcos d
where e is the observer’s sliding mode gain, and Lij is the >
>

>
> F^zrj Iw  
observer’s feedback gain. >
> ^
Considering big tremble due to the time delay and system iner- : F yrj ¼ F^ þ F^
> 
aþb
eyr satðsÞ þ Lyr ðu  u ^Þ
zrl zrr
tia, we use the concept of boundary layer to decrease the estima-
(29)
tion error. The saturation function satðsÞ is used to replace the
sgnðsÞ, and the tremble can be weakened greatly
8 3.3 Estimation of Individual Wheel Tire-Road Friction
< s ; jsj  u Coefficients. The designed MSO contains two modes: when the
satðsÞ ¼ u (23) vehicle is under driving or brake, an SSM is used to estimate the
: sgnðsÞ; jsj > u
road-tire friction coefficient, and a RLS is utilized in the SSM;
when the vehicle is under steering, a comprehensive friction esti-
where u > 0 is the thickness of the boundary layer. mation method is adopted.

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Fig. 5 Vehicle dynamics states in simulation: (a) longitudinal
velocity and steering wheel angle, (b) longitudinal acceleration,
and (c) lateral acceleration
When the vehicle is under steering, the nonlinear extent of the
yaw rate u and ay can be used to obtain the error of the friction
which may compensate the detected lateral acceleration to esti-
mate the road friction under steering conditions. The nonlinear
extent of ay reflects the understeer condition and the nonlinear
Fig. 6 The longitudinal tire force in simulation: (a) front right wheel, (b) front left wheel, (c) rear right wheel,
and (d) rear left wheel
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extent of u reflects the oversteer conditions [29]. Therefore, the
comprehensive friction estimation method in Ref. [24] is adopted
to estimate the road-tire friction under steering conditions.
When the vehicle is under driving and brake, the MSO works in
another mode. The SSM is designed which utilizes RLS to
observe the road-tire friction coefficient of each individual wheel
under driving or brake conditions. The road-tire friction coeffi-
cient estimation part of the proposed AUMS uses the vertical and
longitudinal tire forces of individual wheel estimated by the above
AUSMO, and the individual wheel longitudinal slip ratio which
can be calculated by Eq. (6). The longitudinal tire force of individ-
ual wheel is proportional to its own slip ratio for any given road
surface and normal vertical tire force, which can be presented as
the following equation [17]:
Fxij ¼ jij  kij  Fzij (30)
The slip-slop can change with the road surface, i.e., the tire-road
friction coefficient. Therefore, it can be used to observe the value
of tire-road friction coefficient of individual wheel. The estima-
tion relationship between tire-road friction coefficient and slip-
slop can be presented as linear equation as shown in the following
equation:
lij ¼ nj  jij þ n0 (31)
where nj and n0 are constants, and they can be calibrated by the
simulation.
Then, the value of slip-slop jij is essential to observe lij . We
use RLS-based parameter identification method to obtain jij in
real time. The standard parameter identification format is shown
in the following equation:
yðtÞ ¼ uT ðtÞ  hðtÞ þ eðtÞ (32)
In this paper, the longitudinal tire force of each individual wheel
is the system output yðtÞ. uðtÞ ¼ kij  Fzij denotes the system input.
JULY 2019, Vol. 141 / 071006-5
 Fig. 7 The lateral tire force in simulation: (a) front right wheel, (b) front left wheel, (c) rear right wheel, and (d)
rear left wheel

hðtÞ ¼ jij is the unknown parameter. eðtÞ is the identification error
between yðtÞ and the estimated value uT ðtÞ  hðtÞ.
The iterative steps of the RLS-based parameter identification
method are as follows.
First, we use the vertical, longitudinal tire forces, and slip ratio
of each individual wheel estimated by the proposed AUSMO to
obtain the system output yk ¼ F^xij;k and system input uk ¼
kij;k  F^zij;k .
Second, the identification error ek , that is the difference
between the system’s actual output at this step and the output pre-
dicted in the previous step.
ek ¼ yk  uTk hk1 ¼ F^xij;k  kij;k  F^zij;k  jij;k1 (33)
Then, the proposed method calculates the update gain Kk and the
covariance matrix Pk

Fig. 8 The vertical tire force in simulation: (a) front right wheel, (b) front left wheel, (c) rear right wheel, and
(d) rear left wheel

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 Fig. 9 The road-tire friction coefficient in simulation: (a) front right wheel, (b) front left wheel, (c) rear right
wheel, and (d) rear left wheel

Pk1  uk Pk1  kij;k  F^zij;k
Kk ¼ ¼ wheel in the designed complex simulation scenario. The estimates
1 þ uTk  Pk1  uk 1 þ F^zij;k  kij;k  Pk1  kij;k  F^zij;k
(34)
Pk1  uk  uTk  Pk1
Pk ¼ Pk1 
1 þ uTk  Pk1  uk
Pk1  kij;k  F^zij;k  F^zij;k  kij;k  Pk1
¼ Pk1 
1 þ F^zij;k  kij;k  Pk1  kij;k  F^zij;k
Finally, we update the estimated parameter as follows:
jij;k ¼ jij;k1 þ Kk  ek
The slip slop jij can be estimated by the Eq. (36), and then based
on the Eq. (31), the tire-road friction coefficient at each individual
wheel can be observed.
4 Simulation and Experiment Results
To verify the effectiveness of the proposed AUMS, a group of
simulation tests and real car experiments are carried out. The
results of both simulations and real car experiments show that the
proposed AUMS has great performance of tire-road information
monitoring.
Figure 6 shows the individual longitudinal tire force of each
longitudinal tire forces can converge to the corresponding actual
values quickly. During the brake maneuver, the front longitudinal
tire forces are about 1900 N, and the rear longitudinal tire forces
are about 1000 N. when the vehicle model is under steering or
driving, the rear tire forces are about zero. The front longitudinal
tire forces are about 1000 N when the vehicle model accelerates.
As shown in Fig. 7, during steering maneuver, the lateral tire
(35) forces of four wheels fluctuate and the estimated lateral tire forces
are of high accuracy. Moreover, the lateral tire forces of rear axle
are about zero as shown in Figs. 7(c) and 7(d) when the vehicle
model is not under steering, but the actual lateral tire forces of
(36) front axle are about N, respectively, due to the accurate modeling
of CARSIM. Wheel alignment parameters are considered in the
design of CARSIM vehicle models, and it can cause two lateral
forces in equilibrium of two front wheels, which is not necessary
to consider in the lateral tire force estimation. Figure 8 gives the
calculation results of individual vertical tire forces. The estimated
values can meet the requirement of application precision since the

4.1 Simulation Results. We use CARSIM and MATLAB/SIMULINK

to develop the simulation platform. CARSIM provides a full-vehicle
model with the actual vehicle parameters. Then, a complex sce-
nario is designed and implemented to evaluate the performance of
the proposed monitoring system. The simulation scenario consists
of the driving maneuver, brake maneuver, and sine wave steering
maneuver as shown in Fig. 5. The vehicle utilized in CARSIM first
brakes with 2 MPa brake control pressure, and the velocity
decreases from 33.3 m/s to about 11 m/s. From about 6 s to 24 s,
the sine wave steering maneuver is conducted and the steering-
wheel amplitude is 90 deg, and the frequency is 4 Hz. Then, the
vehicle model accelerates with small throttle opening. Figures
5(b) and 5(c) give the longitudinal and lateral accelerations of the
vehicle model. Fig. 10 The experiment car with multiple sensors

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Fig. 11 Vehicle dynamics states in real car test: (a) longitudi-
nal velocity and steering wheel angle, (b) longitudinal accelera-
tion, and (c) lateral acceleration
estimated values can converge quickly to the actual values with
high estimation accuracy. While, the vertical tire forces are calcu-
lated only considering the effects of vehicle body roll and load
transfer. Future works may focus on more accurate observation of
Fig. 12 The longitudinal tire force in real car test: (a) front right wheel, (b) front left wheel, (c) rear right wheel,
and (d) rear left wheel
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vertical tire forces which may rely on more specific sensors uneq-
uipped on board.
Figure 9 shows the road-tire friction coefficient in the designed
complex simulation scenario. It is set to be 0.4 before 2.5 s, and
after 2.5 s, it is a constant of 0.9. The estimated values are of
enough accuracy to be applied in the automotive industry. At
about 24.5 s, the estimated values have a little large fluctuation
due to the mode switching when the vehicle stop sine wave steer-
ing maneuver to accelerate. When the vehicle model is under
severe brake on a low adhesion road, the load transfer is large and
rear axle may occur slippage, so the estimated friction coefficient
values of rear two wheels fluctuate a little violently before about
2.5 s, and similar phenomenon exists in the vertical tire forces as
shown in Figs. 9(c) and 9(d).
4.2 Experiment Results. The real car experiment is carried
out utilize an A-class sedan, and it is equipped with multiple sen-
sors, such as wheel force transducers of Kistler, steering angle
sensor, wheel angular velocity sensor, and yaw rate and lateral
acceleration sensors. Figure 10 demonstrates the test equipment of
the real car experiment. The proposed AUMS can estimate tire-
road information utilizing the signals measured by sensors on-
board, i.e., steering angle sensor, and wheel angular velocity sen-
sor and so on. The estimated values can be compared with the
measured results by the wheel force transducers of Kistler.
The real car test is carried out on an asphalt road. The test sce-
nario is designed as follows. First, the car speeds up to about
15 m/s; then, the sine wave maneuver is implemented at about
15 m/s, finally, the car brakes suddenly. Figure 11(a) shows the
longitudinal velocity and steering wheel angle in real car tests.
The longitudinal acceleration is shown in Fig. 11(b), the maxi-
mum acceleration is about 5 m/s2, while the maximum decelera-
tion is about 6 m/s2. The lateral acceleration is shown in Fig.
11(c), and the maximum lateral acceleration is about 6 m/s2.
The actual tire forces can be measured by the wheel force trans-
ducers of Kistler and the measured signals contain some noise sig-
nals as shown in Figs. 12–14, but the measured values of tire
forces are of high precision. The estimated tire forces are com-
pared with corresponding measured values.
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 13 The lateral tire force in real car test: (a) front right wheel, (b) front left wheel, (c) rear right wheel, and
(d) rear left wheel

Figure 12 shows the individual longitudinal tire force of each
wheel in real car test. During the brake maneuver, the maximum
value of front longitudinal tire forces is about 4000 N, while the
maximum value of rear longitudinal tire forces is about 1500 N.
when the vehicle model is under steering or driving, the rear tire
forces are about zero. The front longitudinal tire forces are larger
than zero when the car accelerates before about 10 s. Similar to
the simulation results, the proposed AUMS can estimate longitu-
dinal tire forces of four wheels accurately.
Figure 13 shows the individual lateral tire force of each wheel
in real car test. The errors between the estimated values and the
actual values of lateral tire forces in the real car test are larger
than those in the simulation. Sensors on-board exist inevitable
measurement noises. The actual vehicle test condition is more
complicated than that of simulation. Therefore, the observation
accuracy is reduced. Anyway, the proposed AUMS is accurate
enough to be applied in the automotive industry. Figure 14 gives
the calculation results of individual vertical tire forces in our real

Fig. 14 The vertical tire force in real car test: (a) front right wheel, (b) front left wheel, (c) rear right wheel, (d)
rear left wheel

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 Fig. 15 The road-tire friction coefficient in real car test: (a) front right wheel, (b) front left wheel, (c) rear right
wheel, and (d) rear left wheel

car experiment, the calculated values coincides with the corre-
sponding measured vertical tire forces.
Figure 15 shows the road-tire friction coefficient in real car test.
The test is carried out on an asphalt road. The estimated road-tire
friction coefficients of four wheels are all about 0.7. The actual
road tire friction coefficient cannot be measured, but the estimated
values seem reasonable. The estimated values have minor change
before about 20 s. Afterward, a little large fluctuation appears, and
the car is under severe steering. The proposed MSO works in
steering estimation mode instead of driving or brake estimation
mode.
5 Conclusion
This paper proposes a novel AUMS to simultaneously observe
the tire-road friction coefficient and tire forces, i.e., vertical, longi-
tudinal, and lateral tire forces. First, the vertical tire forces can be
calculated considering vehicle body roll and load transfer. The
longitudinal and lateral tire forces are estimated by the AUSMO.
Then, the road-tire friction coefficient is observed through the
designed MSO which utilizes RLS identification method and com-
prehensive friction estimation method. When the vehicle is under
driving or brake, a SSM with the RLS identification method is
used to estimate the road-tire friction coefficient of each wheel;
when the vehicle is under steering, a comprehensive friction esti-
mation method is adopted. The performance of the proposed
AUMS is verified by both the MATLAB/SIMULINK CARSIM cosimula-
tion and the real car experiment. Results demonstrate the effec-
tiveness of our proposed AUMS, and it provides accurate
monitoring of tire-road information. However, the road-tire infor-
mation is of great complexity, it not only includes tire forces and
road-tire friction, but also contains tire side-slip angle and tire
pressure, etc. Therefore, its observation still needs to be studied to
be more exhaustive and robust in the future research.
Funding Data
 National Key Research and Development Program of China
(Grant No. 2017YFB0103902; Funder ID: 10.13039/
501100002855).
 National Science Fund of the Peoples Republic of China
(Grant No. 51675293; Funder ID: 10.13039/501100001809).
Nomenclature
ay ¼ lateral acceleration
a; b ¼ distance from vehicle gravity center to front and
rear axles, respectively
Faero ¼ air resistance force
Fxf ; Fxr ¼ front and rear longitudinal tire forces in total,
respectively
Fxij ; Fyij ; Fzij ¼ longitudinal, lateral, and vertical tire forces of
four wheels, respectively
Fyf ; Fyr ¼ front and rear lateral tire forces in total,
respectively
g ¼ acceleration of gravity
hg ¼ height of sprung mass center
Iw ¼ inertia moment about the vehicle vertical axis
m ¼ vehicle mass
R ¼ effective wheel radius
Ttij ; Tbij ¼ driving and brake torques of four wheels,
respectively
u; Vy ¼ vehicle longitudinal and lateral velocity,
respectively
w ¼ distance between the left and right wheel
aij ¼ side-slip angle of four wheels, respectively
b ¼ vehicle side-slip angle
d ¼ steering angle of front wheel
jij ¼ slip-slop of individual wheel, respectively
kij ¼ slip ratio of four wheels, respectively
u ¼ yaw rate
xij ¼ wheel angular speed of four wheels, respectively
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