Chassis integrated control and energy efficiency optimisation for over-actuated electric ground vehicles

Stability and economy are both important for electric vehicles (EVs). A novel integrated controller with active front steering (AFS) and direct yaw moment control (DYC) was proposed to realise vehicle stability control and energy efficiency optimisation. In the upper controller, the stability controller was designed based on the dual sliding mode control (DSMC) to calculate the desired active steering angle and yaw moment to improve the stability. In the lower controller, the energy efficiency optimisation controller was designed by looking-up the driving/braking efficiency maps of in-wheel motors to optimise the longitudinal tyre forces, aiming to make the in-wheel motors work at the high efficiency area. The simulations are conducted on the Simulink/CarSim platform and the results controlled by two different controllers are compared. The results show that the two controllers could improve the vehicle stability, while the integrated controller could decrease the total energy consumption of in-wheel motors. Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.