Frequency domain approach for the design of heavy-duty vehicle speed controllers

The large parameter variations in heavy-duty trucks make it difficult to find appropriate settings for fixed structure speed controllers. Satisfying the design specifications with experience based trial-and-error control design methods is very time-consuming. This paper discusses the modelling and model verification of a vehicular driveline and the model based, systematic design and tuning of speed controllers, using frequency domain techniques. Experiments with a real truck show that the performance and robustness of the closed loop system is within the specifications. The focus is on the cruise control, but the approach is also applicable to other speed controllers.