Abstract: A vehicle steering system in which brake steering forces intervene in the manual steering function wherein brake steering can be used to control the lateral position of a vehicle to supplement manual steering efforts, the system including brake controls for wheel brakes at the left and right sides of the vehicle which develop differential brake forces that result in a change in vehicle lateral position, the lateral position that is developed forming an input for a feedback regulator and brake controller, the magnitude of lateral position errors determining the brake forces that affect yaw rate and lateral position.

Abstract: A method is provided for a vehicle yaw rate estimation using two accelerometers and a steer angle sensor. The new method combines two complimentary approaches to yaw rate estimation using accelerometers. A kinematic yaw rate estimate is weighted with a vehicle lateral acceleration at the center of gravity, and steering angle and vehicle forward speed are incorporated into a Kalman filter for estimating vehicle yaw rate based upon the kinematic yaw rate estimate, the lateral acceleration at the center of gravity, the vehicle steering angle, and the vehicle forward speed. The method incorporates use of either one or two accelerometers.