It was shown that traction control is important for safety and highway automation of
vehicles. A robust control strategy was designed for slip control, which in turn controls
the traction. It was shown how traction control can be used to satisfy different objectives
of vehicle control. The importance of traction control was further emphasized by
comparing its performance to passive controllers in a simulation study in which an impulselike
wind disturbance was introduced. The comparative study showed that the system
under traction control is stable in the presence of external disturbances, whereas the system
under passive control may become unstable in the presence of external disturbances.
Traction control can be used to enhance the performance of a single independent
vehicle with a complete set of sensors and controller integrated in a single system, or a
platoon of vehicles, where the sensors and the controllers are distributed within the vehicles
and the roadway, It can be used to accelerate or decelerate a single vehicle in the minimum
time, or it can be used to enhance the maneuvering ability of a vehicle, especially during
severe steering actions. Traction control also improves the performance of platoon of
vehicles in terms of stability and achieving a tighter control. Traction control makes the
system robust to external disturbances and provides a better control especially during
significant lateral maneuvers.
Further study of traction control is in progress including evaluation of traction control
as a part of integrated longitudinal and lateral control strategy