Adaptive LQR Control for a Rear-Wheel Steering Battery Electric Vehicle

Nowadays battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are seen as a promising and viable alternative to traditional road transport means. However, these vehicles weight more than conventional ones due to the presence of bulky battery packs. This work presents the design of a rear-wheel steering (RWS) adaptive Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) control capable of improving handling characteristics of the retained electric vehicle. The reliability of the control is highlighted by performing manoeuvres at different road friction coefficients. Moreover, the RWS controller is validated by implementing a processor-in-the-loop (PIL) architecture in a high-performance real-time target computing machine.