Design of an Integrated Control system for Torque Vectoring and Traction Control in Electric Vehicles

In recent years, the percentage of electronic devices used in vehicles has increased significantly. This growing is due to the importance of electronics in guaranteeing safety and efficiency and affecting the dynamics of the vehicle, enhancing its overall performance. Advanced electronic systems are also crucial from a control point of view, because they increase the precision and the responsiveness of the control mechanism improving traction management, torque distribution and vehicle stability performances. For this reason, electronics in vehicles have become an indispensable component for the evolution of contemporary, technologically advanced vehicles in the automobile industry. In general, each electronic device can achieve one aim; however, being the vehicle a very complex system, it is necessary to put together a lot of devices ensuring their operation by balancing between multiple objectives. This thesis proposes a novel system dedicated to the improvement of vehicle stability and performance in longitudinal, lateral, and combined slip conditions by integrating torque vectoring and traction control strategies. The system consists of three parts: the traction control component, the torque vectoring component, and the integration component. The integration stage represents the most innovative part of the work as it deals with the resolution of conflicts between the two controllers, giving different priorities depending on the driving situations. According to the throttle and steering angle inputs from the operator, this system develops the torque values relevant to each of the four wheels by considering several driving conditions and weighting one variable more than another, depending upon the situation. Numerical simulations of both the steady-state and transient conditions are performed to validate the controller operational effectiveness by using co-simulation involving VI–CarRealTime and MATLAB/Simulink where, respectively,the vehicle model and control mechanisms are developed.