Calculation of an Average Vehicle's Sideways Acceleration on Small Roundabouts

Area of Science:

• Automotive Engineering
• Road Safety Technology
• Vehicle Dynamics

Background:

• Accurate calculation of vehicle turning radius is crucial for understanding vehicle dynamics and improving road safety.
• Existing methods for determining turning radius may have limitations in real-world driving scenarios, especially on small roundabouts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a method for calculating average sideways acceleration and turning radius using speed and angular velocity for vehicles up to 3.5 t gross vehicle mass.
• To validate the accuracy of this method by comparing it with established techniques like the three-point method using GPS coordinates.

Main Methods:

• Calculated turning radius derived from angular velocity and automatic event selection based on lateral acceleration coefficient of variation.
• Utilized speed data from a Global Navigation Satellite System/Inertial Navigation System (GNSS/INS) dual-antenna sensor and gyroscope data.

Main Results:

• Calculations of turning radius based on speed and angular velocity yielded results nearly identical to the three-point method using GPS coordinates.
• The derived turning radius from GNSS/INS sensor speed and gyroscope data showed similar outcomes to computations using GNSS/INS sensor coordinates.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method for calculating turning radius from speed and angular velocity is accurate and comparable to GPS-based methods.
• These findings support the development of new sensors for enhanced road safety systems, particularly for navigating roundabouts.