Design and Simulation Study of an Intelligent Electric Drive Wheel with Integrated Transmission System and Load-Sensing Unit

Wheel load is a critical information source reflecting the status of vehicle load distribution and motion. Yet, existing in-wheel motor products are primarily designed as propulsion units and inherently lack the load-sensing capabilities required by intelligent vehicles. To address this research gap, this paper presents a novel intelligent electric drive wheel (i-EDW) with an integrated transmission system and a load-sensing unit (LSU). The i-EDW adopts an Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (AFPMSM), while the integrated LSU ensures high-precision measurement of six-dimensional wheel forces and moments. According to this multi-axis force information, a real-time estimation and stability control method based on the tire–road friction circle concept is proposed. Instead of the complex decoupling and multi-objective optimization with the multi-actuator systems, this paper focuses on minimizing the tire load rate of i-EDWs, which significantly advances the state of the art in terms of calculation efficiency and respond speed. To validate this theoretical framework, a full-vehicle model equipped with four i-EDWs is developed. In the MATLAB R2022A/Simulink co-simulation environment, a virtual prototype is tested under typical driving scenarios, including the straight-line acceleration and double-moving-lane (DML) steering. The simulation results prove a reliable safety margin from the friction circle boundaries, laying a solid foundation for precise motion control and improved system robustness in future intelligent vehicles.