A neighbourhood-electric vehicle development with individual traction on rear wheels

A simple traction control implementation of a Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) is presented in this paper. An electronic differential traction control is performed using two independent field-oriented controlled Induction Motors (IMs) mounted in the rear wheels. In order to reproduce a mechanical differential behaviour, an equal-torque traction control is carried out using only the IM's currents and speeds measurements. A basic self-blocking control is introduced to avoid uncontrolled wheel acceleration during equal-torque control action. The traction system allows energy recovery for batteries during vehicle braking through the IM's regenerative braking. Standard industrial IMs are rewound to operate on safe low voltage (28 Vrms) and to use standard DC-Link 42V, while maintaining the original motor power. Two three-phase MosFet inverters are built for these motor power requirements. The whole system is controlled using a single digital signal processor, TMS320F2812. Experimental results for different vehicle manoeuvres are presented to validate the right traction control operation.