The identification of maximum road friction coefficient and optimal slip ratio is crucial to vehicle dynamics and control.However,it is always not easy to identify the maximum road friction coefficient with high robustness and good adaptability to various vehicle operating conditions.The existing investigations on robust identification of maximum road friction coefficient are unsatisfactory.In this paper,an identification approach based on road type recognition is proposed for the robust identification of maximum road friction coefficient and optimal slip ratio.The instantaneous road friction coefficient is estimated through the recursive least square with a forgetting factor method based on the single wheel model,and the estimated road friction coefficient and slip ratio are grouped in a set of samples in a small time interval before the current time,which are updated with time progressing.The current road type is recognized by comparing the samples of the estimated road friction coefficient with the standard road friction coefficient of each typical road,and the minimum statistical error is used as the recognition principle to improve identification robustness.Once the road type is recognized,the maximum road friction coefficient and optimal slip ratio are determined.The numerical simulation tests are conducted on two typical road friction conditions(single-friction and joint-friction)by using CarSim software.The test results show that there is little identification error between the identified maximum road friction coefficient and the pre-set value in CarSim.The proposed identification method has good robustness performance to external disturbances and good adaptability to various vehicle operating conditions and road variations,and the identification results can be used for the adjustment of vehicle active safety control strategies. The identification of maximum road friction coefficient and optimal slip ratio is crucial to vehicle dynamics and control. Even, it is always not easy to identify the maximum road friction coefficient with high robustness and good adaptability to various vehicle operating conditions. The existing investigations on robust identification of maximum road friction coefficient are unsatisfactory.In this paper, an identification approach based on road type recognition is proposed for the robust identification of maximum road friction coefficient and optimal slip ratio. instantaneous road friction coefficient is estimated through the recursive least square with a forgetting factor method based on the single wheel model, and the estimated road friction coefficient and slip ratio are grouped in a set of samples in a small time interval before the current time, which are updated with time progressing. The current road type is recognized by comparing the samples of the estimated road friction coef ficient with the standard road friction coefficient of each typical road, and the minimum statistical error is used as the recognition principle to improve identification robustness. Once the road type is recognized, the maximum road friction coefficient and the optimal slip ratio are determined. numerical simulation tests are conducted on two typical road friction conditions (single-friction and joint-friction) by using CarSim software. The test results show that there is little identification error between the identified maximum road friction coefficient and the pre-set value in Car Sim. proposed identification method has good robustness performance to external disturbances and good adaptability to various vehicle operating conditions and road variations, and the identification results can be used for the adjustment of vehicle active safety control strategies.