Path planning for a four wheel driven electric vehicle

This paper presents a path planning concept of a four wheel driven electric vehicle. Based upon an extension of the standard nonlinear single track model, which describes the vehicle dynamics, a method for optimal control of nonlinear ODEs is used to generate actuation values which lead the vehicle through a given course. The activation of the four single drives allows an improvement of the driving dynamics while offering a greater degree of freedom to solve the path planning problem. Various criteria for energy efficient or comfort optimal driving are presented and discussed. The operability of the concept is shown with the help of a cross-country driving task.