Improved Vehicle Dynamics performance using In-Wheel Motor Torque Vectoring and Electromechanical Active Suspension Roll Damping

The automotive market for passenger vehicles is changing rapidly towards electrification. This leads to new opportunities but also to new control challenges with respect to vehicle stability and driving comfort. A possible method to both increase vehicle stability and driving comfort at the same time is by using ride blending. This is the combination of using the propulsion torque generated by in-wheel motors and the force generated by an active suspension to influence the motion of the vehicle body. In this paper, the aim is to investigate the first step towards ride blending, namely exploring the added value of using an active suspension combined with torque vectoring compared to only torque vectoring. The P4 hybrid demonstrator vehicle recently developed by Flanders Make is used for the experiments. Since a traction control and torque vectoring algorithm was not available on this vehicle, both are developed by Flanders Make and also discussed in this paper.