To resolve the urban transportation challenges like congestion, parking, fuel consumption, and pollution, narrow urban vehicles which are small in footprint and light in their gross weight are proposed. Apart from the narrow cabin design, these vehicles are featured by their active tilting system, which automatically tilts the cabin like a motorcycle during the cornering for comfort and safety improvements. Such vehicles have been manufactured and utilized in city commuter programs. However, there is no book that systematically discusses the mechanism, dynamics, and control of narrow tilting vehicles (NTVs).

In this book, motivations for building NTVs and various tilting mechanisms designs are reviewed, followed by the study of their dynamics. Finally, control algorithms designed to fully utilize the potential of tilting mechanisms in narrow vehicles are discussed. Special attention is paid to an efficient use of the control energy for rollover mitigation, which greatly enhance the stability of NTVs with optimized operational costs.

Autorentext

Chen Tang is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering with the University of Waterloo, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2018. He received his B.Sc.and M.Sc. in mechanical engineering from Tongji University, China in 2009 and 2012, respectively. His research interests include vehicle dynamics and control, advanced chassis systems,and intelligent transportation systems.Amir Khajepour is a professor in the department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Mechatronic Vehicle Systems, and NSERC/General Motors Industrial Research Chair in Holistic Vehicle Control. His expertise is in several key multidisciplinary areas including system modeling, control, and vehicle dynamics. His research has resulted in many patents and technology transfers. He is the author of more than 500 journal and conference publications as well as several books. He is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,and the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering.