Transportation Expertise

Stability Control Systems

As early as the 1970s, UMTRI was involved in the development of electronic aids to the stability and control of commercial vehicles through its work on the simulation of the earliest versions of ABS for air-braked trucks. More recently, projects have been conducted to develop and study electronic systems for aiding both roll and handling stability.

UMTRI developed an early roll stability advisory system (RSA) and an active system for rearward amplification suppression (RAMS) in double- and triple-trailer vehicles. UMTRI has developed an adaptive cruise control (ACC) system and implemented it in trucks for the U.S. Army. UMTRI's work on RSA contributed to the motivation for the development of commercial roll stability control (RSC) systems by Freightliner and Meritor WABCO.

UMTRI has been, and currently is, conducting naturalistic field operational tests (FOT) evaluating these and other systems in the context of real-world, commercial trucking operations.