Combined LKA and DYC Control for Electric Vehicle With a Domain-Centralized E/E Architecture Based on Software-Defined Networking

This study presents a methodology to improve combined lane-keeping assistance (LKA) and direct yaw-moment control (DYC) of distributed drive electric vehicles (EVs) running at a steady high speed, where a domain-centralized electronic and electrical (E/E) architecture based on software-defined networking (SDN) is adopted. It is well-known that domain-centralized E/E architecture has great advantages in terms of function integration, software upgrade, and wiring reduction. However, the increasing E/E function components, heterogeneous network topologies, multiple different protocols, and cross-domain communication behaviors would bring unknown cross-domain multihop information delays and negative system uncertainties, which may degrade the system's performance and even deteriorate the system's stability. To enjoy the advantages while dealing with the problems of the domain-centralized E/E system, a centralized SDN framework is introduced, which includes a strategy plane, control plane, and data plane, for the design of a combined LKA and DYC system. And in the control plane, a scheduling strategy based on the fractional-type basic period (FBP) method is developed to actively regulate information flow and restrain the cross-domain information delays. In the strategy plane, a hierarchical control scheme is adopted, where a delay-embedded LKA controller at the upper level is designed to actively make decisions, and at the lower level, an H-infinity-based linear quadratic regulator (H-infinity-LQR) controller is employed to ensure the stability of the motion control system against the local within-domain information delays. The results of the hardware-in-loop (HIL) test demonstrate that the loop delays have been reduced by 87.5% with the proposed SDN and the proposed methodology can effectively make the lane keeping well.