Longitudinal and Lateral Coordinated Control of Distributed Drive Electric Vehicles Based on Model Predictive Control

With the successful development of electric vehicles, the longitudinal and lateral dynamic performance under high-speed and large-curvature scenarios is still an urgent problem to be solved. An electric path-tracking controller is designed in this paper, which changes control modes according to the driving scenarios in distributed drive electric vehicles (DDEVs). A vehicle-road model is constructed based on the structural characteristics of DDEV, which incorporates the vehicle's longitudinal and lateral handling mechanics and path-tracking capability. An event division mechanism based on expected lateral acceleration is proposed in this paper. A switching strategy and a path-tracking controller that can adapt to different driving scenarios are designed based on the Model Predictive Control (MPC). Under the conditions of high-speed driving and high road adhesion rate, the proposed controller performs better in tracking accuracy and stability control than the traditional Active Front Steering (AFS) controller. This paper also expects to find a control scheme covering actual vehicle test requirements and how to reduce the shock caused when switching control modes.