Multi-layer Disturbance Observer-based Wheel Speed Control for Electric Vehicles

As the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) increases globally, there is a need to provide effective control for the safety and stability of the vehicles. In this paper, a cascade observer-based wheel speed control of an EV is proposed. The scheme uses three-loop cascade observers to estimate the wheel speed, which is often difficult to measure and critical for the EV’s control. The study only uses the measurement of the motor speed and torque to estimate the wheel speed from the observation of the total disturbances acting on the EV. A PID control is then designed for the control of the wheel speed using the estimated speed. The effectiveness of the designed observers and the wheel speed control is investigated using Matlab simulation under the influence of parametric uncertainties and external disturbance.