Coordinated control strategy for enhancing lateral dynamics in distributed-drive vehicles equipped with rear-wheel steering

Distributed-drive vehicles and rear-wheel steering vehicles offer advantages in yaw rate and sideslip angle performance, respectively, enhancing vehicle lateral dynamics. The combination of these two advanced systems holds significant potential. However, balancing yaw rate and sideslip angle performance is challenging, and an appropriate collaboration mode is required to improve both control performance and energy efficiency. This paper proposes an adaptive coordinated control strategy (ACS) for distributed-drive vehicles equipped with rear-wheel steering. Firstly, a reference vehicle model is built based on lateral dynamics analysis. Secondly, a nonlinear tire model is used to depict the phase plane of vehicle lateral stability. Next, the ACS consists of three model predictive controllers (MPC) and a controller selector. The controller selector determines the control mode based on the phase plane analysis. Finally, comparative simulations and hardware-in-the-loop experiments are conducted to compare the proposed strategy with other advanced systems. Simulation results and hardware-in-the-loop testing results show that the proposed ACS can better balance the yaw rate and sideslip angle performance, with significant enhancement on yaw rate control. The actuator energy consumption is reduced compared to simply coupled control due to the controller selector.