A 14 DEGREES OF FREEDOM VEHICLE DYNAMICS MODEL TO PREDICT THE BEHAVIOR OF A GOLF CAR

ABSTRACTA14 Degrees Of Freedom vehicle handling dynamics model is presented andimplemented using MATLAB/SIMULINK software. The model is used to predict thebehavior of a golf car in different steering conditions. This work is focusing on thevehicle heading modeling as a part of “implementation and control of an autonomouscar project” adopted by Autotronics Research Lab (ARL). The vehicle handlingrelated degrees of freedom are calculated. The vehicle yaw rate and lateralacceleration for step and sinusoidal steering wheel excitation are computed to predictthe heading of the vehicle. The model results are verified against similar workstudying the steering and handling behavior of different cars. The results show goodagreement with the literature results.