20080489

AVEC '08 - 089

Virtual Sensors: an Original Approach for Dynamic Variables

Estimation in Automotive Control Systems
Pandeli Borodani
Centro Ricerche Fiat - Vehicle Systems
Orbassano, Turin, 10043, ITALY
Phone: +39 011 9083862
Fax: +39 011 9083898
E-mail: pandeli.borodani@crf.it
Numerous studies have confirmed the effectiveness of vehicle dynamics control systems, saving
lives and reducing the severity of crashes. The perceived improvement of the performances is
often obtained by low cost SW of these new controlled functions. For costs reduction, it is crucial
to detect since in design phase the minimal set of physical sensors indispensable for the control,
without worsening performance and robustness. By the other hand, in safety critical control
systems it is common practice to use diagnostics and analytical redundancy for both detecting and
handling errors, to better manage certain sensor failures and reconfigure the system, if one or more
sensors brake down, to achieve so-called degraded (limp home) functionality, enhancing the
dependability. This paper discusses two successful study case applications in Centro Ricerche Fiat
of virtual sensors, respectively for yaw rate and chassis modal velocities signals reconstruction,
utilising a new design approach.
Topics/Vehicle Control, Vehicle Dynamics
degraded functionality (limp home) providing thus
an enhancement of the dependability because this
variable is recovered based upon available
information (y).
The lever to obtain new margins of competitiveness
introducing new functions often urges to cost
reduction of these new functions, and the solution
may be the employment of a reduced set of sensors
or of not costly ones. Otherwise, only some cheap
sensors measuring y are present in the plant,
whereas the sensor measuring z may be complex or
costly, so used only for an initial set of experiments.
By virtual sensor, is meant an algorithm that
computes at every instant the values of any variable of
interest, not directly measured.
The standard approach for a dynamic system state
reconstruction consists of a two-step procedure: firstly, a
process model is identified and successively an observer
- often Kalman Filter - is designed [3,7,8]. As minimum
variance filter, the KF performance deteriorates due to
modelling errors, unavoidable in complex and hardly
nonlinear dynamics. The approximate solutions,
(Extended KF) provide poor performance and dont
guarantee bounded estimation errors.
Recently, results an increasing interest for new
approaches that directly identify the estimator model,
starting from a set of noisy data (1-step approach).
The identified observer [4-6] represents a "virtual"
sensor, providing quasi optimal solution even in
worst-case estimation and boundedness properties.

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays the most part of the innovative contents
introduced in the automobile are determined from a
massive electronics employment, in form of the
advanced technologies and their management and
control systems. The perceived improvement of the
performances like active safety, comfort, driveability,
driving assistance and personalization is often obtained
by low cost SW of these new controlled functions
[1-3,6-8]. For costs reduction, it is crucial to detect in
design phase the minimal set of physical sensors
indispensable for the control, without worsening
performance and robustness. Furthermore, in most of
feedback control systems in automotive, the control
action depends on some important variables (lateral
vehicle velocity, sideslip,.) which are often not
measured directly. For this purpose it is winning the
idea to use the so-called virtual sensors, i.e. extract
information of any physical variable not available from
direct sensors (difficult to measure or require costly
sensors), say it z, by using only available information,
say it y. Two scenarios leading to the virtual sensor are
distinguished:
In safety critical control systems it is common
practice to use diagnostics and analytical
redundancy for both detecting and handling errors,
to better manage certain sensor failures. This
implies that the system is reconfigured if one or
more sensors (z) brake down, to achieve slightly

527

AVEC '08

certain instant tm.

The standard approach in the literature for the observer
design deals with the so called two-step procedure,
well-known in the literature for a dynamic system state
reconstruction; it consists of the following steps:
firstly, a process model in terms of state space equations
is identified (A, B, C and possibly L):

The first application of this paper concerns with

yaw rate signal reconstruction, employed in a feedback
control loop (Electronic Stability Program ESP) in the
vehicles, which provides a lower risk of skidding and
stabilize the vehicle within a yaw control frame, in order
to handle situations in which the car behaviour tends to
spin out. Through exhaustive experimental tests effected
with a demonstrative Fiat vehicle prepared purposely
was verified that the reconstructed yaw rate signal fits
with satisfactory precision and good responsiveness the
respective signal coming from the sensor in the whole
range of operating conditions, even during severe
manoeuvres with ESP, ABS, ASR active on vehicle
dynamics. Additionally, the former signal was used in
closed loop for the ESP system, by-passing the
measured yaw rate in view of a limp home control
strategy.
In the second application it is described the
dynamic reconstruction of the chassis modal velocities,
employed in the development of low cost vertical
dynamic control systems for shock absorbers in a
passengers car. The minimal physical sensors set
indispensable at this control local level consists of three
vertical accelerometers installed on the vehicle frame
and other two, on the front rigid axles sides. Through
this study the objective was to substitute this set of five
accelerometers with four stroke sensors mounted on the
controlled dampers body, without modifying the
existing control law. As demonstrated with several tests
carried out (demonstrative vehicle Fiat Stilo 2.4 20v
Abarth), the results obtained are satisfactory.
The paper is organised as follows: in the paragraph
2, a brief introduction of the methodology utilised for
virtual sensors applications in this work, is given. The
main part of the paper is dedicated to the first
application (paragraph 3) concerning with yaw rate
signal reconstruction for ESP control systems, relative
to a diagnostics and analytical redundancy scenario. The
paragraph 4 illustrates briefly another study case
application, where the same control system works with
a reduced (cheaper) set of sensors, without worsening
the system performance. Finally, some concluding
remarks are given.

x(t ) = Ax (t ) + Bu (t ) + Lx (t ), E{x (t )} = 0,
x(t ) R ,
n

u (t ) R ,

y (t ) = Cx (t ) + q (t ),

x (t ) R

"t

(2)

y (t ) R p , q (t ) R p

successively an observer based on the identified model

is designed, held on by the following equations:

x (t ) = Ax (t ) + Bu (t ) + H [ y (t ) - Cx (t )]
= [ A - HC ]x (t ) + Bu (t ) + Hy (t )

(3)

y (t ) = Cx (t )

The dynamic model described above is (preferable in

automotive community) built up from inside, i.e. a
model based upon physical laws describing the process,
in terms of nominal transfer functions, including the
intrinsic nonlinearities. From experimental tests, a
reduced set of model parameters is estimated. The
observer, often is a Kalman filter (KOBS=H is optimal
Kalman gain matrix) as in the figure 1/a.
The most part of practical problems in automotive,
are hardly non-linear. As a minimum variance filter, the
KF performance deteriorates due to modelling errors,
unavoidable in such complex and nonlinear dynamics.
Furthermore they widely use approximate solutions,
such as the Extended KF, a non-linear approach, with
gain matrix (H) variable and calculated on-line at every
sampling rate. The algorithm calculations implemented
in discrete are recursive and provide poor performance,
even can not guarantee bounded estimation errors. The
practical realisation of this kind of filters introduces
large difficulties and not always is guaranteed stable
estimation procedure.
Recently results an increasing interest, especially
in academic communities, for new approaches based
upon the idea of directly identifying the estimator model
starting from a set of noisy data, the so-called 1-step
approach [4-6]. It implies the identification of an
overall model including by itself the dynamic behaviour
described by the above equations, as shown
schematically in the figure1/b. In the literature, this
problem is mathematically formalised as follows:
Consider again the non-linear discrete time system in
state space form with input u and outputs [y, z]:
xt +1 = Fx ( xt , ut )

2. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Consider a non-linear discrete time system in state space
form with input u and outputs [y, z]:
xt +1 = Fx ( xt , ut )
(1)
yt = H y ( xt , ut )
where, xt X n, ut U mu, yt Y my;
Fx,Hy are continuous and differentiable functions
(in most practical situations, not known).
Let be zt any variable of interest defined in mz
(zt Zmz, a subspace included to n); also noise
corrupted measurements of t, t are available for all
times t. It is of interest to know zt for "t starting from a

yt = H y ( xt , u t )

(4)

zt = H z ( xt , ut )
where Hz is a continuous and differentiable function as
well. Also, noise corrupted measurements of t, t are
available for all times t whereas zt is measured only for
t< Tm. It is of interest to know zt for t>Tm.

528

AVEC '08

In the Milanese et al. is demonstrated that for (Fx,

Hy) observable, $ F0 and integers nu, ny such that, the
variable of interest zt may be calculated as:
~ ~

zt = F0 (Yt , U t ) + d t ,
t = 0, 1 ,2, ....., Tm
~ ~ ~
(5)
Y = y , y , ......, ~
y
t

t -1

t - ny +1

(estimation error in worst-case estimation is not greater

than twice the optimal one); a similar result is not
assured by the Kalman filter techniques. They seem to
provide good results for complex nonlinear models and
work with a reduced set of measured data.
Three elements are important for the 1-step
observer design procedure:

~
U t = [u~t , u~t -1 , ......, u~t -nu +1 ]
Fo is a parametric functional and dt is due to the
uncertainty of zt, yt and ut,
sequence of dt is supposed to be bounded.
Thus, the problem to identify the observer representing
the "virtual" sensor, is transformed in the estimation of
an functional FA(Y,U) as a parametric approximation of
F0, computed using any desired nonlinear estimation
method, within a bounded subset of the regressor space
zt and its appropriate orders [nu, ny].

accomplish some determined experimental tests in

order to obtain significant input-output data
correlation
determine a set of candidate models (structure of
the model) for the identification
define a criterion to choose a particular model,
based on the information derived from the data
(identification method and validation criteria)
Nowadays exists in the literature a certain number of
advanced approaches concerning the identification
procedures and the observer structures. The technique
adopted in this work follows in principle the
methodological approach described in [5], expediently
modified according to specific case; it was also utilised
the System Identification Toolbox of Matlab for
black-box model parameterisation. Toolbox supplies
an automatic procedure in order to estimate the
black-box models order even in the state-space form. In
the specific case it was preferred to reason on the
system physics and the complexity of the model,
maintaining a not elevated digit: once the fundamental
dynamics of the system are captured, it is necessary to
evaluate the trade-off between the complexity due to an
increased model order and the effective improvement
fitting the data.

d
u
Model
identif.

KOBS
design

PLANT

yst
MODEL

y, z

y
+

zst

Observer
KOBS

(a)

d
u

PLANT

MODEL
Direct
Designed
Observer
KOBS

3. YAW RATE SIGNAL RECONSTRUCTION

+

yst

y, z

The first study case application concerns with the

yaw rate signal reconstruction, employed in feedback
control loop of ESP (Electronic Stability Program) in
the vehicle. The ESP system provides a lower risk of
skidding because improves limit handling and stability
of the vehicle correcting severe understeer and oversteer
conditions in which the car behaviour tends to spin out.
Its technical effect consists of reduction of the vehicle
yaw angle by producing an opposing momentum via the
brakes. Vehicle yaw control problem objective is to
change the steady state and transient behaviour of the
car, enhancing vehicle handling in turning manoeuvres
and keeping stability in presence of unusual external
conditions and inputs, such as lateral wind force or
different left-right side friction coefficients. By tuning
the desired response and the control gains, vehicle
designers can affect the balance between vehicle
responsiveness and stability.
The ESP systems commercially available use normally
the measured steering wheel angle and vehicle speed to
determine the desired response of the vehicle in terms of
yaw rate and sometimes vehicle sideslip angle or
sideslip rate. Then it compares the desired states with

zst
(b)

Fig. 1 Conventional (a) and 1-step approach (b)

In the 1-step approach the observer model is built
up from outside by special identification process.
Virtual sensors derived in this way can be proven
theoretically to provide quasi optimal solution even in
worst-case estimation and boundedness properties,
resulting anyway a minimum variance estimator

529

AVEC '08

the measured (yaw rate) or estimated (sideslip angle)

ones; when a sufficient discrepancy is detected, the
system applies brakes to reduce such a difference.
The activation of the ESP relies also on the yaw rate and
the lateral accelerometer sensors signals, so the signals
accuracy and plausibility provided by these sensors
become very important for normal operation of the
stability control system. Thus accurate on-line
monitoring and fault detection of them become
important in todays applications. In the following is
shown how the yaw rate signal (z) is dynamically
reconstructed in real time, using only the measured
velocity signals at every wheel, the steering angle (u)
and eventually, the lateral acceleration of the vehicle (y).
Problem formulation
The vehicle behaviour in turning conditions is
excited by the inputs as steering angle, commanded by
the driver, and external forces and moments applied to
the vehicle as well.
The most significant variables describing vehicle
behaviour are lateral acceleration ay(t), yaw rate y (t ) and
vehicle sideslip angle b(t). As a first approximation,
considering car and suspension system as a rigid body
moving at constant speed n, the following relationship
links ay(t) to b:
(6)
a (t ) = n (y (t ) + b (t ))

steering angle and four pick-up mounted at every wheel

for the respective speed. Additional signals/sensors were
used custom (only) for system development - design and
calibration: lateral acceleration (front + rear crosspiece
aYF, aYR), sideslip vehicle angle (installed a Datron
device providing Vx and Vy speed components, by
which is calculated the sideslip angle b), pressure at
every wheel (4 analogical pressure sensors); also
ABS_active and ASR_active flags were available.
Firstly, we were attempted to analyse ESP function and
successively verify experimentally some requirement
for the design of the yaw rate observer, summarised as
follows:
In rectilinear manoeuvres the tolerance of yaw rate
signal accepted from ESP system is up to 3/sec
Responsiveness: timing is most relevant for the ESP
to predict vehicle spinout, relating the vehicles
yaw rate at a certain t (some tenths of second) to
its peak yaw rate; within such a time the system
identifies the loss of control due to oversteer, after
which it is not likely the vehicle will be able to
respond to the drivers handwheel input. Thus, no
delay must be during the dynamical reconstruction
of this signal during impulsive manoeuvres (like,
even severe, step steer ones).
Percentage of peak yaw rate, either in overshoots or
in undershoots, is also relevant to predicting the
vehicle spinout. We fixed a relative error during
impulsive manoeuvres lower than 10% (for
instance, less than 3/sec when the peak value of
the yaw rate is @ 30/sec).
In steady state condition during a turning manoeuvre, or
in other ones where the vehicle stability doesnt reach a
critical point, a larger error may be tolerated.
The only measure available in r.t. work of for yaw rate
reconstruction was the ay. It was also required the
possibility to reconstruct the yaw rate in the case when
ay was missed, so y=[]. In this last case, it is impossible
to use the conventional approach.

Observer design is normally worked out on the basis of

the single track vehicle model, with tyre dynamic force
generation description. The employed model is based on
some simplifying hypothesis and employing the tyre
lateral force-side slip linear dependence, obtained by
linearising Pacejika formulation, with slip angle near to
zero and introducing tyre lateral relaxation lengths.
Starting from above equation, after some mathematical
elaboration the vehicle yaw rate dynamics can be
described (for a fixed value of v) by the following
transfer functions in the Laplace domain:
y ( s ) = Gd ( s )d ( s ) + GM ( s ) M Z ( s )
(7)
where d is the front steering angle, Mz the yaw moment;
Gd(s) and GM(s) are functions of the dimensions
and the characteristics of the vehicle.
In view of a more accurate dynamic vehicle model for
the estimation of yaw rate real vehicle behaviour is
influenced by several factors that introduce model
uncertainty (the use of parameters not constant, would
lead to large errors in case of their uncertainty or time
varying values, etc). Another drawback consists of the
necessity to ponderously filter the only signals of
measured variables involved in these models like
wheels speed, acceleration. These drawbacks put in the
evidence in the difficulties described in paragraph 2 to
adopt an conventional approach.
Control requirements and observer design
For the present application a demonstrative Fiat vehicle
with a normal production ESP was prepared on purpose.
In this configuration were available the following
measure sensor signals: yaw rate, c.o.g. acceleration,

Fig. 2 Layout of the demonstrative vehicle

The trick utilised in this case consisted of utilising a
number of output measurements equal to the model
order (the number of the states). The chosen states of the
system to be reconstructed as virtual sensor were the
additive signals on the experimental vehicle:
x = [y , a CoG
, b , a yF , a yR ]T
y

530

AVEC '08

u = [d vol , w LF , w RF , w LR , w RR ]T

y = a CoG
y

In such manoeuvres, reversals of steering angle are

quick so, the front tire slip angles and consequently the
front tire lateral forces are reversed, while the rear axle
lateral force lags, maintaining the direction supporting
the first turn. As a result, the vehicle is, for some time,
subjected to a pair of opposite lateral forces, which
creates a large yaw moment causing a rapid rotation of
the vehicle. Generally yields large overshoot in yaw rate
and the development of a significant sideslip angle.

(8)

y aug = [y , b , a yF , a yR ]T

or y = [ ]

Successively, a simple linear transformation of the

identified model in the space of the states was applied
and the virtual sensor had the following definitive form:
~z (t + 1) = A ~z (t ) + B u (t )
T
T
~
z(t ) = z (t )

(9)

AT = C A-1 C
BT = C B,

4. CHASSIS MODAL VELOCITIES ESTIMATION

CT = I

Through exhaustive experimental tests was verified

that the reconstructed yaw rate signal fits with
satisfactory precision and good responsiveness the
respective signal coming from the sensor in the whole
range of operating conditions, even during severe
manoeuvres with ESP, ABS, ASR active on vehicle
dynamics. Additionally, the former signal was used in
closed loop for the ESP system, by-passing the
measured yaw rate in view of a limp home control
strategy. Comparing on the field its behaviour for
similar test vehicle manoeuvres (severe step and
reversal steer tests) where ESP intervenes, no significant
differences resulted during its operation with measured
or reconstructed yaw rate signal (Figure 3).

In this application it is described the dynamic

reconstruction (similar approach) of the chassis modal
velocities, employed in the development of low cost
vertical dynamic control systems for shock absorbers in
a passengers car. A very diffused control approach is the
semi-active modal skyhook control strategy, which
adapts the suspension damping ratio according to the
current running conditions. It provides satisfactory
performance in terms of enhanced ride-comfort,
minimising the vibration energy, and handling,
providing a reduced vehicle roll velocity and pitch
motion during cornering and braking manoeuvres.
The minimal physical sensors set indispensable at
this control local level consists of three vertical
accelerometers installed on the vehicle frame and other
two, on the front rigid axles sides [2].

CDS 001 - 19feb07 - c.l. with sensor

(a)

X1 - Comfort 60 km/h
0.4

VDC ON

Veicolo
Stima
0.3

-5

dvol / 10
0.2
-10

0.1
-15

0
Psi mis
Psi stim
VDC active
LWS [/10]

Yaw Rate
measured & estimated

-20

-0.1

-0.2
-25
2.5

3.5

4.5

5.5

6.5

7.5

measured &
estimated

-0.3

ATI 007 - 19gen07 - c.l. with observ

(b)

-0.4

25

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Long. velocity

20
15

10

Psi mis
Psi stim
VDC active
LWS [/10]
Vx [m/s]

0.25

VDC ON

0.15

X1 - Comfort 60 km/h

Veicolo
Stima

0.2

0.1

dvol / 10

-5

0.05

-10

0
-0.05

-15
-0.1

-20
-25

-0.15

Yaw Rate measured & estimated

5

10

-0.2

11
-0.25
10

Fig. 3 Yaw rate estimation in a severe steer test (a)

and (b) in a reversal steer test manoeuvres

11

12

13

14

15

Fig.4 Vertical motion velocity in a comfort track

531

AVEC '08

Through this study the objective was to substitute this

set of five accelerometers (ySET1) with four stroke
sensors (ySET2) mounted on the controlled dampers body,
without modifying the existing control law.
So, it was required a dynamic reconstruction of the
chassis modal velocities: shaking (z), rolling (f) and
pitch (q), employing only the signals of the stroke
sensors (ySET2) and the current signals commanding the
adjustable dampers at every corner (u).

5. CONCLUSION
The supplied algorithm is numerically robust and
the results brought back in this document, obtained from
several tests on the La Mandria test tracks, seems to
satisfy the initial project requirements in both cases.
Another main contribute of this work is a
methodological one: in fact, such a technique may result
applicable in a short time to every class of vehicles to
provide the desired state variable estimations as well;
whats more, it does not need of many calibrations on
the field.

X3 - Insaccamento 60 km/h
Banco
Stima

0.1

0.08

measured &
estimated

0.06

Acknowledgments

0.04

The author is grateful to L.Guglielmetto, M.Ieluzzi,

M.Parodi, A.Stefanini, P.Turco, , for their help and
fruitful discussions during the development of these
projects.

0.02

-0.02

-0.04

-0.06

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3.2

3.4

3.6

REFERENCES

3.8

Fig.5 Pitch motion velocity in a comfort track

[1] Canale, M. et al., ''Robust vehicle yaw control using

an active differential and IMC techniques'', Control
Engineering Practice, vol. 15, no. 8, pp. 923-941,
2007
[2] Ieluzzi, M. et al., Development of a Automotive
Semi-Active Suspension Control, 4th International
Conf. Control and Diagnostics in Automotive
Applications, Sestri Levante (Italy), 2003
[3] Hac, A. et al., Estimation of vehicle side slip angle
and yaw rate, in Proceedings of SAE 2000 World
Congress, 2000
[4] Ksu, H. et al., Nonlinear virtual sensors design
from data, 14th IFAC Symposium on System
Identification - SYSID 2006, New Castle 2006
[5] Milanese, M. et al., Filter design from data: direct
vs. two-step approaches, ACC 2006, Minneapolis,
Minnesota, USA, June 2006
[6] Milanese, M. et al., Direct Virtual Sensor (DVS)
design in vehicle sideslip angle estimation,
Proceedings of the 2007 American Control
Conference, New York City, USA, July 11-13, 2007
pp.3654- 3658
[7] Stphant, J. et al., Virtual sensor: Application to
vehicle sideslip angle and transversal forces, IEEE
Trans. on Industrial Electronics, pp. 278289, 2004
[8] von Vietinghoff, A. et al., Nonlinear observer
design for lateral vehicle dynamics, in Proc. of the
16th IFAC World Congress, 2005.

The methodological approach pursued was the same

described in paragraph 2 and applied in the previous
study case, where:
x = [ z, f, q]T

u = [ I a1 , I a 2 , I a 3 , I a 4 ]T

(10)

y = y SET 2 = [lx1 , lx 2 , lx 3 , lx 4 ]T
Starting from the accelerations to every corner, ySET1,
was possible to estimate with accuracy (through
well-known dynamic vehicle equations) the chassis
modal velocities, off-line; after which they were used in
the identification phase of the virtual sensor design.
For this application, a demonstrative vehicle (Fiat
Stilo 2.4 20v Abarth) was prepared purposely too. On a
test bench with 4 aces and successively on some special
tracks have been carried out different manoeuvres for
the evaluation of the vibration behaviour of the vehicle,
consisting of: impulsive manoeuvres (symmetrical
sackings to speed 40-160 km/h) and random ones
(comfort, highway and pave tracks) at various velocities,
combined also in turns, in order to excite the lateral
dynamics of the vehicle. As demonstrated with these
tests, the provided algorithm is numerically robust and
the results obtained are satisfactory: in figure 4 is
given the shaking velocity during a comfort track
driving at constant velocity about 60 km/h, whereas in
figure 5 is given the pitch velocity reconstruction in a
symmetric sacking maneuver at 60 km/h.

532