A MPC-Based Torque Distribution Strategy for Distributed Drive Electric Vehicles

This paper proposes a model predictive control (MPC)-based torque distribution strategy for the distributed drive electric vehicles to improve the vehicle stability and drivetrain energy efficiency. A 2-DoF vehicle dynamic model is developed to calculate the desired vehicle states and yaw moment, which are used as the reference signals in the MPC controller. An energy efficiency-based torque distribution strategy and a minimum power loss-based strategy are respectively presented to control the wheel torque within the constraints of yaw moment and demand driving torque. Quadratic programming (QP) is adopted to solve the problems with objective functions of these two strategies. Finally, the proposed strategies are evaluated based on a co-simulation of CarSim and Matlab/Simulink. The results indicate that the energy efficiency-based strategy can significantly improve the vehicle yaw stability and reduce energy consumption compared to the vertical load-based distribution strategy.