Control for four-wheel independently driven electric vehicles to improve steering performance using H∞and Moore–Penrose theory

Electric vehicles have the potential to reduce oil dependency and decrease emissions. Electric vehicles with four-wheel independent drive have become a promising vehicle architecture. The yaw moment control has been widely applied to improve the performance of four-wheel independent drive electric vehicles. This study develops a new ideal vehicle model as a reference, which has a logarithmic functional relationship between wheel cornering stiffness and the controlled electric vehicles. A control method based on H∞theory and Moore–Penrose inverses property is used to produce the optimal yaw moment to match the ideal vehicle model. The simulation results show that the yaw speed of the controlled electric vehicles increases with lower speed, and the yaw speed and slip angle decrease with a higher speed. The steering performance is efficiently improved when the four-wheel independent drive electric vehicles can accurately match the ideal vehicle model.