Motion Tracking Control of Six-Wheel Skid-Steering Electric Vehicles via Two-Level-Sequence-Based Integrated Algorithm

The hierarchical control structure consisting of an upper control system and a lower control system has been widely used to handle the motion tracking control problem for vehicle motion systems under weak disturbances. However, strong disturbances often exist in actual systems and pose a certain threat to control systems. In this article, a two-level-sequence-based integrated algorithm is proposed, which includes an antidisturbance sliding-mode motion controller (ADSMC) and a torque distributor, for six-wheel skid-steering electric vehicles under strong disturbances. For details, the ADSMC is proposed for the upper control system, which is designed to calculate the direct driving/braking torque and yaw torque acting on the vehicle body. In the lower control system, a torque distributor by introducing specific vehicle performance indicators is proposed to obtain the optimal torque of each wheel. With the help of two-level-sequence-based integrated algorithm, the antidisturbance performance of vehicle motion tracking under strong disturbances and the vehicle yaw stability are both improved. Based on the real six-wheel prototype vehicle data, the feasibility and advantages of the integrated algorithm are validated in the joint environment of Trucksim and MATLAB-Simulink.