Reconfigurable control of an in-wheel electric vehicle based on LPV methods

The paper presents a reconfigurable control method for in-wheel electric vehicles. In normal driving conditions, the vehicle is controlled solely by the four electric motors inserted in the wheels of the vehicle, without the intervention of the steering system. The aim is to design a cruise control system with trajectory tracking ability realized by independent torque generation of the four wheels. In case the demanded yawing torque cannot be realized with the four in-wheel motors due to the loss of adhesion or actuator failure, the high level controller reconfigures and steering is applied to stabilize the vehicle motion. The reconfigurable control relies on the specific ability of the in-wheel motors of fast and accurate torque control and precise estimation of the transmissible torque. The operation of the proposed control system is demonstrated in real-data simulation environment.