IMU-Centric Moving Horizon Estimation for Lateral Dynamics Estimation Across Vehicles and Grip Conditions

Abstract:Accurate estimation of lateral vehicle dynamics near the adhesion limit is important for stability control and high-performance driving, but lateral velocity is rarely measured directly because sensors such as optical sensors are costly. This paper presents an inertial measurement unit (IMU)-centric Moving Horizon Estimation framework that reconstructs lateral velocity using standard onboard signals, without relying on exteroceptive odometry or detailed tire-parameter tuning. Experimental validation on human-driven sports cars and an autonomous open-wheel race car across tracks, maneuvers, and conditions demonstrates accurate and robust lateral velocity and lateral acceleration estimates. The proposed framework is available at this https URL

Accepted at the 29th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC 2026). 8 pages, 6 figures

Systems and Control (eess.SY); Robotics (cs.RO)

arXiv:2609.10202 [eess.SY]

(or arXiv:2609.10202v1 [eess.SY] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.10202 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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