Typical traction control systems (TCSs) are mainly designed to maintain the longitudinal acceleration performance of motor vehicles on slippery roads, particularly snow-covered ones. If emphasis is placed on traction, this may result in inadequate vehicle handling performance or, if undue priority is given to vehicle handling, it may lead to insufficient traction performance. Also, the TCS, essentially a spin velocity control system for the driven wheels, may not work stably on a gravel or bumpy road if the wheel rotation receives an external disturbance from vibrations of the suspension.

An improved TCS should provide both satisfactory traction and handling performance whatever the road condition.

This paper gives an example of a control concept which realizes the required system capability, followed by discussions of an experimental vehicle based on this concept. Then it studies the control performance of the example TCS using this experimental vehicle.