Single wheel drives for wheel slip control

Ever-increasing electrification of the drive train offers new possibilities for the power train layouts as well as for vehicle dynamics control. For a single-wheel driven electric vehicle, one should utilize the advantages of the electric engines compared to conventional components. Within this contribution, an optimized arrangement regarding installation space of the drive train with single rear wheel drive was investigated. The electric motors were used for acceleration and deceleration, hence regenerative braking. Often, for brake situations with excessive wheel slip, electric engines are switched off and conventional components as the hydraulic wheel brakes are used to control the wheel speed. A control scheme for a rear-wheel driven electric vehicle with single wheel drives is presented, where only the rear engines and no friction brakes are used for all driving and braking torques. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme has been proven in real vehicle tests for acceleration as well as for braking situations on low friction coefficient surface (snow).