Abstract
The trade-off between fidelity and computational performance must be considered when selectinga suitable vehicle model for numerical analysis studies.This paper explores the effects of model fidelity in the minimum-time cornering of a vehicle. An optimal control problem is constructed to evaluate both a point-mass model and a rigid-body model including a time-axis folding method to configure a U-shaped course layout. Employing a direct, pseudospectral method results in optimal trajectories that are similar for both models, if characteristics of the tire friction force are the same. However, it is possible to obtain time history characteristics of each tire's friction force by rigidbody model analysis. By comparing experimental data of a radio controlled vehicle with numerical results, the proposed computation approach yields adequate results.
