Path Tracking and Handling Stability Coordinated Control of 4WS and DYC for Distributed In-Wheel Motor Drive Electric Vehicle Under Extreme Conditions

How to improve the path tracking ability and handling stability under critical maneuvers is an important research issue for distributed in-wheel motor drive electric vehicle (IWMDEV). This article proposes a novel coordinated control architecture of active four-wheel steering (4WS) system and direct yaw moment control (DYC) system for IWMDEV. Firstly, a novel shared steering control framework for 4WS system is built, which includes two players, namely, the active front steering (AFS)and active rear steering (ARS). The non-cooperative game theory-based control strategy between AFS and ARS is designed to provide more lateral stability for the path following control. Secondly, a linear time-varying model predictive control (LTV-MPC) is used to determine the direct yaw moment of the vehicle. Then, on the basis of comprehensive consideration of system characteristics and control objective performance requirement, the coordination controller based on K-means Density Peak Clustering and Particle Swarm Optimization (KDPC-PSO) algorithm is put forward to calculate optimal weight coefficient between the ARS system and DYC system. Finally, the Carsim/Simulink co-simulation and Hardware-in-the Loop (HIL) experiment results show that the proposed control system can effectively improve the path tracking ability and handling stability of IWMDEV under extreme conditions.