Integrated Torque Vectoring Control for a Three-Axle Electric Bus Based on Holistic Cornering Control Method

Abstract

An integrated chassis control framework that consists of a basic chassis controller and a torque vectoring controller is designed for a three-axle electric bus with distributed motor-driven and active rear steering subsystems. In the basic chassis controller, the active speed limiting control is integrated for antisideslip and antirollover purposes, and the interaxle torque distribution ratio is optimized for energy economy. Meanwhile, the active rear steering control is designed for the tire-wear coordinating purpose. In the torque vectoring controller, the model-based motion control algorithm based on the holistic cornering control method is designed, by which a torque increment is generated at each wheel to change the plane motion states of the vehicle. To solve the optimal torque increment vector, a real-time constrained quadratic programming problem is formulated. The constraints related to the wheel torque limits, the tire friction limits, and the anti-wheel-slip requirements are constructed and converted as the upper and lower bounds of the increments of the longitudinal tire forces. To verify the performance of the control framework, a Trucksim-Simulink cooperative test platform is established. The test results show satisfactory performances on energy economy, anti-wheel-slip, and the safety and stability of the motion control.