Current distribution control of dual directly driven wheel motors for electric vehicles

• Published in: Control engineering practice Vol. 16; no. 11; pp. 1285 - 1292
• Main Authors: Yang, Yee-Pien, Lo, Chun-Pin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2008; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Computer science; control theory; systems; Control system synthesis; Control theory. Systems; Current distribution control; Directly driven wheel motor; Electric vehicle; Exact sciences and technology; Machine components; Mechanical engineering. Machine design; Modelling and identification; Springs and dampers; Directly driven wheel motor; Electric vehicle; Current distribution control; Wheel; Motor car; Model following; dynamic control; Control synthesis; Field programmable gate array; Hardware in the loop simulation; Experimental study; Vehicle dynamics; Modeling; Dynamometer; Current control; Current distribution control;Directly driven wheel motor;Electric vehicle; Road turn; Observer; Current distribution; Robustness; System identification; Dual control; Dc motor
• ISSN: 0967-0661; 1873-6939
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conengprac.2008.02.005

This paper proposes a current distribution control for dual directly driven wheel motors for electric vehicles. The objective is to maintain two driving wheels at a synchronous speed in order to keep the vehicle straight, or at differential speeds when cornering, even when they incur uneven load disturbance or parameter changes. The proposed control scheme employs a load disturbance observer, a model following controller, and a velocity command compensator to determine the proper amount of current supplied to each driving wheel. The vehicle dynamics and control strategy were modeled and the control performance was simulated numerically. Experiments were performed in a hardware-in-the-loop configuration with a dedicated wheel motor on a dynamometer and a virtual one on a field programmable gate array chip where the current distribution control was implemented. The resulting control performance verified the stability and robustness of the system in terms of its insensitivity to parameter variations and its rejection of external disturbances.