In-wheel motor electric ground vehicle energy management strategy for maximizing the travel distance

This paper presents a terrain-information- and actuator-efficiency-incorporated, energy management strategy for maximizing the travel distance of in-wheel motor pure electric ground vehicles (EGVs), which may be necessary under certain circumstances such as maximizing the possibility of reaching a destination (e.g. a recharging station) before battery depletion. Minimization of energy consumption for a certain trip based on operating efficiencies of in-wheel motors and road terrain preview is necessary to maximize the total travel distances of an EGV. By employing the dynamic programming method, the in-wheel motor actuation torque distributions and optimally-varied vehicle velocity are simultaneously obtained to minimize the EGV energy consumption. Simulation results show that the proposed energy management strategy can greatly reduce the EGV energy consumption and thus maximize its travel distance before a recharging in comparison to a trivial equal-actuation strategy.