Optimized design of the electric power train for wheel hub drive systems without friction brakes

Wheel hub drives provide the opportunity to control the torque at every wheel independently. Thus, safety functions like anti-lock braking system (ABS) or electronic stability control (ESC) can be implemented in the drives as well. This enables the substitution of friction brakes at the driven wheels by electric drives. In this paper, resulting requirements for the drive system are presented and an optimized power train topology for this application is developed. Therefore, an approach for the design process of an optimized power train and a comparison of different power train topologies regarding size and efficiency are given.