Torque Vectoring Algorithm of Electronic-Four-Wheel Drive Vehicles for Enhancement of Cornering Performance

This paper introduces a new torque vectoring (TV) algorithm with regards to enhancing the cornering performance of the electronic-four-wheel drive (e-4WD) vehicles. The proposed TV algorithm aims to distribute the in-wheel motor (IWM) torques to the left and right wheels assisting the vehicle in following the driver's intended trajectories. The proposed TV algorithm first included a yaw rate controller reference for neutral-steering which leads to the improvement of vehicle cornering agility. Thereafter, in-vehicle sensors and a standalone global positioning system (GPS) combined with a smooth sliding mode controller (SMC) were used based on a vehicle bicycle model to generate desired yaw moment values to track the reference. Finally, a novel torque distribution algorithm using the Daisy-chaining allocation, which is suitable for redundant actuator configuration, was utilized. Noteworthy, the Daisy-chaining allocation algorithm takes into account a torque operation area with the characteristics of IWM. In this manner, based on the vehicle bicycle model and using the CARSIM interface, the simulations, evaluation and verifications of the proposed control technique were done. Thereafter, considering a real-car based experiments with various driving scenarios, the effectiveness of the proposed TV algorithm was evaluated. It was confirmed that some evaluation factors in terms of the cornering performance were improved. The following main contributions makes the proposed TV algorithm be a meaningful solution to enhance the cornering performance of e-4WD vehicles: 1) improvement of both smoothness and convergence rate of control action, 2) a practical and intuitive way to distribute IWM torques, and 3) high applicability to mass-produced vehicles.