Study on stability and handling characteristics and control of four-wheel-drive electric vehicles

Abstract

Along with the advent of four-wheel-drive electric vehicles, plenty of control strategies have been proposed for such vehicles to coordinate the torque distribution between the four driving wheels. However, how the torque distribution fundamentally affects stability and handling and how the stability/handling characteristics shed light on control system design still require more in-depth investigation. In this article, the stability and handling performances of such electric vehicles are investigated by means of CarSim–Simulink co-simulation. Based on the stability/handling characteristics, a controller is designed to actively adjust the front–rear torque distribution, and another controller is devised to actively tune the left–right torque distribution. The effectiveness of the proposed controllers is verified through CarSim–Simulink co-simulation. The simulation results indicate that the former controller improves stability especially on slippery road surfaces, and the latter controller not only enhances handling in common driving scenarios but also guarantees stability in critical driving conditions.