Control of an electric vehicle with a large sideslip angle using driving forces of four independently-driven wheels and steer angle of front wheels

This paper proposes a motion control scheme for an electric vehicle with a large sideslip angle. The scheme employs the driving forces of the four independently driven wheels and the steer angle of the front wheels. The proposed control algorithm is derived in two steps based on a planar vehicle dynamics with four wheels. First, a control algorithm is derived for the control of forward velocity and yaw rate based on vehicle dynamics. This algorithm describes forward translational motion and yaw rotational motion using redundant driving forces generated by the four wheels as control inputs. Second, a control algorithm for the sideslip angle of the vehicle is derived based on lateral translational motion dynamics of the vehicle using the steer angle of the front wheels as an input. The proposed control algorithm is implemented in a small experimental vehicle, and experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed motion control scheme.