Backlash size estimation in automotive drivelines

To avoid undesirable vibration and noise caused by backlash in a vehicle driveline, it is essential that an accurate and up-to-date estimate of the backlash size be available. In this work, we develop a practical Kalman filter-based backlash size estimator for automotive drivelines. The developed estimator does not require any additional sensors, and uses available speed measurements from the vehicle CAN bus. We validate this backlash size estimator using experimentally collected vehicle test data, and observe that the backlash size estimates are within 98% of the actual driveline's backlash size. Finally, using a simulation model, we analyze the robustness of the estimator to variations in the trajectories of the actuator torque, and observe an accuracy of more than 99% in the backlash size estimate.