Yaw Center Control of a Vehicle Using Rear Wheel Steering

Conventional rear wheel steering control strategies prioritize vehicle handling and stability using yaw rate control based on side slip angle. This paper presents a new method of determining a yaw rate target for a rear wheel steering system by shifting the yaw center of a target model reference vehicle. The linear bicycle car model reference is paired with a basic PI feedback controller to determine the target rear wheel angle. Analyses show that this simple controller that uses a single tunable value can have a large impact on yaw rate response. Advantages and applications of this yaw center control are discussed.