Search Results (12)

This paper proposes a hierarchical framework-based solution to address the challenges of vehicle state estimation and lateral stability control in four-wheel independent drive electric vehicles. First, based on a three-degrees-of-freedom four-wheel vehicle model combined with the Magic Formula Tire model (MF-T), a hierarchical estimation method is designed. The upper layer employs the Kalman Filter (KF) and Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to estimate the vertical load of the wheels, while the lower layer utilizes EKF in conjunction with the upper-layer results to further estimate the lateral forces, longitudinal velocity, and lateral velocity, achieving accurate vehicle state estimation. On this basis, a hierarchical lateral stability control system is developed. The upper controller determines stability requirements based on driver inputs and vehicle states, switches between handling assistance mode and stability control mode, and generates yaw moment and speed control torques transmitted to the lower controller. The lower controller optimally distributes these torques to the four wheels. Through closed-loop Double Lane Change (DLC) tests under low-, medium-, and high-road-adhesion conditions, the results demonstrate that the proposed hierarchical estimation method offers high computational efficiency and superior estimation accuracy. The hierarchical control system significantly enhances vehicle handling and stability under low and medium road adhesion conditions. Full article

This article presents the DTC-SVM approach for controlling a sensorless speed induction motor. To implement this approach, a practical prototype is built using a microcontroller, an embedded GPS module, and a memory card to collect real-time data during the driving route, such as road geographical data, speed, and time. These data are then utilized in the laboratory to implement the control law (DTC-SVM) on the electric vehicle. The d-q model of the induction motor is first presented to explain the requirements for calculating the rotor speed. Then, an adaptive model reference system speed estimator is developed based on the rotor flux, along with a controller and DTC-SVM strategy, which are implemented using the dSpace 1104 board to achieve the desired performance. The simulation results demonstrate satisfactory speed regulation with the proposed system. In this study too, an electronic differential system is modeled for the four wheels of an electric vehicle equipped with an integrated motor, all controlled by the DTC-SVM strategy. Vehicle speed and electrical vehicle steering angle variations, as well as wheel speeds estimated by code system, are verified using MATLAB/Simulink simulations. Full article

As a new type of transportation, the distributed drive electric vehicle is regarded as the main development direction of electric vehicles in the future. Due to the advantages of the independently controllable driving torque of each wheel, it provides more favorable conditions for vehicle active safety control. Acquiring accurate and real-time parameters such as vehicle speed and side slip angle is a prerequisite for vehicle active safety control. Therefore, relying on the National Natural Science Foundation of China, this paper takes the distributed drive electric vehicle in the form of four-wheel independent drive and steering as the research object. Taking the measurement data of low-cost vehicle sensors as input and adaptive Kalman filtering as theoretical support, the sub-filter of federal Kalman filtering adds a fuzzy controller on the basis of volumetric Kalman filtering, and designs the vehicle driving state estimation algorithm to realize the accurate estimation of driving state information. Finally, the typical experimental conditions are selected, and the designed algorithm is verified by the co-simulation of MATLAB/Simulink and CarSim. At the same time, the algorithm is further verified based on the driving simulator hardware-in-the-loop experimental platform. The results show that the designed estimation algorithm has good effects in terms of accuracy, stability, and real-time performance. Full article

The road friction coefficient and the forces between the tire and the road have a significant impact on the stability and precise control of the vehicle. For four-wheel independent drive electric vehicles, an adaptive tire force calculation method based on the improved Levenberg–Marquarelt multi-module and self-organizing feedforward neural networks (LM-MMSOFNN) was proposed to estimate the three-directional tire forces of four wheels. The input data was provided by common sensors amounted on the autonomous vehicle, including the inertial measurement unit (IMU) and the wheel speed/rotation angle sensors (WSS, WAS). The road type was recognized through the road friction coefficient based on the vehicle dynamics model and Dugoff tire model, and then the tire force was calculated by the neural network. The computational complexity and storage space of the system were also reduced by the improved LM learning algorithm and self-organizing neurons. The estimation accuracy was further improved by using the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Moving Average (MA). The performance of the proposed LM-MMSOFNN was verified through simulations and experiments. The results confirmed that the proposed method was capable of extracting important information from the sensors to estimate three-directional tire forces and accurately adapt to different road surfaces. Full article

Vehicle dynamics control systems have a fundamental role in smart and autonomous mobility, where one of the most crucial aspects is the vehicle body velocity estimation. In this paper, the problem of a correct evaluation of the vehicle longitudinal velocity for dynamic control applications is approached using a neural networks technique employing a set of measured samples referring to signals usually available on-board, such as longitudinal and lateral acceleration, steering angle, yaw rate and linear wheel speed. Experiments were run on four professional driving circuits with very different characteristics, and the vehicle longitudinal velocity was estimated with different neural network training policies and validated through comparison with the measurements of the one acquired at the vehicle’s center of gravity, provided by an optical Correvit sensor, which serves as the reference (and, therefore, exact) velocity values. The results obtained with the proposed methodology are in good agreement with the reference values in almost all tested conditions, covering both the linear and the nonlinear behavior of the car, proving that artificial neural networks can be efficiently employed onboard, thereby enriching the standard set of control and safety-related electronics. Full article

Four-wheel independently driven electric vehicles are prone to rollover when driving at high speeds on high-adhesion roads and to sideslip on low-adhesion roads, increasing the risks associated with such vehicles. To solve this problem, this study proposes a path tracking and stability-integrated controller based on a model predictive control algorithm. First, a vehicle planar dynamics model and a roll dynamics model are established, and the lateral velocity, yaw rate, roll angle, and roll angle velocity of the vehicle are estimated based on an unscented Kalman filter. The lateral stiffness of the tires is estimated online according to the real-time feedback state of the vehicle. Then, the path tracking controller, roll stability controller, and lateral stability controller are designed. An integrated control strategy is designed for the path tracking and stability, and the conditions and coordination strategies for the vehicle roll and lateral stability state in the path tracking are studied. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively limit the lateral load transfer rate on high-adhesion roads and the sideslip angle on low-adhesion roads at high speeds. Hence, the driving stability of the vehicle under different road adhesion coefficients can be ensured and the path tracking performance can be improved. Full article

To achieve Industry 4.0 solutions for the networking of mechatronic components in production plants, the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technology is the optimal way for goods transportation in the cyber-physical system (CPS). As a result, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are networked to all other participants in the production system to accept and execute transport jobs. Accurately tracking the planned paths of AGVs is therefore essential. The omnidirectional mobile vehicle has shown its excellent characteristics in crowded environments and narrow aisle spaces. However, the slip problem of the omnidirectional mobile vehicle is more serious than that of the general wheeled mobile vehicle. This paper proposes a slip estimation and compensation control method for an omnidirectional Mecanum-wheeled automated guided vehicle (OMWAGV) and implements a control system. Based on the slip estimation and compensation control of the general wheeled mobile platform, a Microchip dsPIC30F6010A microcontroller-based system uses an MPU-9250 multi-axis accelerometer sensor to derive the longitudinal speed, transverse speed, and steering angle of the omnidirectional wheel platform. These data are then compared with those from the motor encoders. A linear regression with a recursive least squares (RLS) method is utilized to estimate real-time slip ratio variations of four driving wheels and conduct the corresponding compensation and control. As a result, the driving speeds of the four omnidirectional wheels are dynamically adjusted so that the OMWAGV can accurately follow the predetermined motion trajectory. The experimental results of diagonally moving and cross-walking motions without and with slip estimation and compensation control showed that, without calculating the errors occurred during travel, the distances between the original starting position to the stopping position are dramatically reduced from 1.52 m to 0.03 m and from 1.56 m to 0.03 m, respectively. The higher tracking accuracy of the proposed method verifies its effectiveness and validness. Full article

This article proposes a novel longitudinal vehicle speed estimator for snowy roads in extreme conditions (four-wheel slip) based on low-cost wheel speed encoders and a longitudinal acceleration sensor. The tire rotation factor, η, is introduced to reduce the deviation between the rotation tire radius and the manufacturer’s marked tire radius. The Local Vehicle Speed Estimator is defined to eliminate longitudinal vehicle speed estimation error. It improves the tire slip accuracy of four-wheel slip, even with a high slip rate. The final vehicle speed is estimated using two fuzzy control strategies that use vehicle speed estimates from speed encoders and a longitudinal acceleration sensor. Experimental and simulation results confirm the algorithm’s validity for estimating longitudinal vehicle speed for four-wheel slip in snowy road conditions. Full article

High-integrity information about the vehicle’s dynamic state, including position and heading (yaw angle), is required in order to implement automated driving functions. In this work, a comparison of three integrity algorithms for the vehicle dynamic state estimation of a research vehicle for an application in automated driving is presented. Requirements for this application are derived from the literature. All implemented integrity algorithms output a protection level for the position and heading solution. In the comparison, four measurement data sets obtained for the vehicle dynamic state estimation, which is based on a Global Navigation Satellite Signal receiver, inertial measurement units and odometry information (wheel speeds and steering angles), are used. The data sets represent four driving scenarios with different environmental conditions, especially regarding the satellite signal reception. All in all, the Kalman Integrated Protection Level demonstrated the best performance out of the three implemented integrity algorithms. Its protection level bounds the position error within the specified integrity risk in all four chosen scenarios. For the heading error, this also holds true, with a slight exception in the very challenging urban scenario. Full article

When dealing with electric vehicles, different powertrain layouts can be exploited. Among them, the most interesting one in terms of vehicle lateral dynamics is represented by the one with independent electric motors: two or four electric motors. This allows torque-vectoring control strategies to be applied for increasing vehicle lateral performance and stability. In this paper, a novel control strategy based on torque-vectoring is used to design a drifting control that helps the driver in controlling the vehicle in such a condition. Drift is a particular cornering condition in which high values of sideslip angle are obtained and maintained during the turn. The controller is applied to a rear-wheel drive race car prototype with two independent electric motors on the rear axle. The controller relies only on lateral acceleration, yaw rate, and vehicle speed measurement. This makes it independent from state estimators, which can affect its performance and robustness. Full article

The integrated longitudinal and lateral dynamic motion control is important for four wheel independent drive (4WID) electric vehicles. Under critical driving conditions, direct yaw moment control (DYC) has been proved as effective for vehicle handling stability and maneuverability by implementing optimized torque distribution of each wheel, especially with independent wheel drive electric vehicles. The intended vehicle path upon driver steering input is heavily depending on the instantaneous vehicle speed, body side slip and yaw rate of a vehicle, which can directly affect the steering effort of driver. In this paper, we propose a dynamic curvature controller (DCC) by applying a newly-defined parameter, the dynamic curvature of the path, derived from vehicle dynamic state variables; yaw rate, side slip angle, and speed of a vehicle. The proposed controller, combined with DYC and wheel longitudinal slip control, is to utilize the dynamic curvature as a target control parameter for a feedback, avoiding estimating the vehicle side-slip angle. The effectiveness of the proposed controller, in view of stability and improved handling, has been validated with numerical simulations and a series of experiments during cornering engaging a disturbance torque driven by two rear independent in-wheel motors of a 4WD micro electric vehicle. Full article

This research paper analyses the use of four electric vehicles, two motorcycles (EM) and two small low powered electric vehicles (EV) in an urban environment with demanding topography and driving profile. The vehicles were compared with conventional technologies using a methodology that was developed to estimate its drive cycle (EV-DC) as well as the corresponding energy consumption, in a life-cycle approach. This methodology uses real-world driving cycles as input performed with conventional vehicles, in this case, on representative routes in Lisbon, and estimates the impacts on the driving cycle considering that an electric vehicle was used. The deviation between the original and the estimated driving cycles for electric vehicles was quantified considering the power and speed limitations of the electric vehicles and the average speed and trip time impacts were quantified. The results indicate up to 13% longer trip time for the vehicles and up to 25% longer trip time for motorcycles, resulting of reductions in average trip speed of up to 11 and 20% respectively. In terms of fuel efficiency, the electric technologies considered may reduce the Tank-to-Wheel (TTW) energy consumption in average 10 times for the vehicles and 4 times for the motorcycles. However, the reductions in a Well-to-Wheel (WTW) approach are reduced to a 5 times reduction in energy consumption for vehicles and a 2 times reduction for motorcycles. In all, this methodology corresponds to an innovative way of understanding how low-powered electric technologies, both vehicles and motorcycles, would perform in specific applications to replace conventional technologies, both in terms of trips statistics and of energy and environmental performance. Full article