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Vehicle Pitch, Roll and Yaw

August 27th 2020

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines Vehicle Dynamics as the relationship between the forces applied to a vehicle and the resulting motion [1]. Three important motions of a vehicle which will be explained in this blog are pitch, roll and yaw. In describing the motions of a vehicle, the definition of a reference coordinate system is necessary. The defined coordinate system is consistent with the orientations specified in SAE J670 [2] and are shown in Figure 1.

Pitch is the rotation of a vehicle about the transverse axis.

Roll is the rotation of a vehicle about the longitudinal axis.

Yaw is the rotation of a vehicle about the vertical axis.