Modeling, simulation and control of a 4WD electric vehicle with in-wheel motors

Abstract

A relatively new technology for the electric vehicles considers the use of brushless permanent magnet motors directly connected to the car wheels (in-wheel motors or hub motors). In order to evaluate the performance that can be obtained, a complete dynamic model of a four-wheel drive (4WD) electric vehicle equipped with four in-wheel motors is developed and a correspondent parametric simulator is implemented in Matlab/Simulink™. The simulator is also employed for designing, testing and comparing various control logics which reproduce the handling behavior of a real vehicle.