Dynamics characteristics analysis and control of FWID EV

Abstract

Compared with internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, four-wheel-independently-drive electric vehicles (FWID EV) have significant advantages, such as more controlled degree of freedom (DOF), higher energy efficiency and faster torque response of an electric motor. The influence of these advantages and other characteristics on vehicle dynamics control need to be evaluated in detail. This paper firstly analyzed the dynamics characteristics of FWID EV, including the feasible region of vehicle global force, the improvement of powertrain energy efficiency and the time-delays of electric motor torque in the direct yaw moment feedback control system. In this way, the influence of electric motor output power limit, road friction coefficient and the wheel torque response on the stability control, as well as the impact of motor idle loss on the torque distribution method were illustrated clearly. Then a vehicle dynamics control method based on the vehicle stability state was proposed. In normal driving condition, the powertrain energy efficiency can be improved by torque distribution between front and rear wheels. In extreme driving condition, the electric motors combined with the electro-hydraulic braking system were employed as actuators for direct yaw moment control. Simulation results show that dynamics control which take full advantages of the more controlled freedom and the motor torque response characteristics improve the vehicle stability better than the control based on the hydraulic braking system of conventional vehicle. Furthermore, some road tests in a real vehicle were conducted to evaluate the performance of proposed control method.