Using a computer mouse sensor to measure the sideslip angle of a vehicle

In vehicle dynamics, sideslip angle is a key parameter and it is required by Electronic Control Units to activate Electronic Stability Control systems. Thus, accurate estimation of the sideslip angle is essential for preventing accidents or mitigating their severity. However, passenger vehicles do not feature dedicated sensors specifically designed to measure sideslip, and they rely instead on estimations derived from other onboard sensors. It is then reasonable to foresee that a direct measurement of the sideslip angle could significantly improve Electronic Stability Control systems and general safety in road transport. This work proposes a novel low-cost method to directly measure the lateral velocity of a vehicle and its sideslip angle. More specifically, the performance of a standard computer mouse optical sensor is experimentally evaluated in comparison with a high-end optical flow sensor specifically designed for vehicle dynamics research. The proposed solution is tested on a 1:5-scale vehicle and on a passenger car. The results demonstrate that the inexpensive, off-the-shelf mouse sensor performs similarly to the specialized high-end sensor. Given this promising result, more research in this field is suggested.