Four-wheel Independently Driven Formula: Experimental EV for Motion Control Studies

This paper presents the new experimental electric vehicle (EV), which is adapted on the basic of the electric Formula SAE Hertz at the University id Sherbrooke. It is 4-wheel motored EV configuration, in which each wheel is driven by an independent motor. This structure enables us to exploit full advantages of electric motors, mainly in fast torque generation. Therefore, various advanced methods can be applied to obtain good motion control performance. In the paper, the vehicle is first introduced, the laboratory-made electric motors are then described. The modelling of the system is made by using EMR. The research topics on motion control are presented using our new platform. Case studies, including disturbance observer based (DOB) anti-slip control and optimization force distribution control have been provided. In the future, different advanced traction and motion control techniques will performed on this new platform.