A Simplified Sliding Mode Controlled Electronic Differential for an Electric Vehicle with Two Independent Wheel Drives

This paper presents a simple sliding mode control strategy used for an electronic differential system for electric vehicle with two independent wheel drives. When a vehicle drives along a curved road lane, the speed of the inner wheel has to be different from that of the outer wheel in order to prevent the vehicle from vibrating and travelling an unsteady path. Because each wheel of this electrical vehicle has independent driving force, an electrical differential system is required to replace a gear differential system. However, it is difficult to analyse the nonlinear behaviour of the differential system in relation to the speed and steering angle, as well as vehicle structure. The proposed propulsion system consists of two permanent magnet synchronous machines that ensure the drive of the two back driving wheels. The proposed control structure called independent machines for speed control allows the achievement of an electronic differential which ensures the control of the vehicle behaviour on the road. It also allows to control, independently, every driving wheel to turn at different speeds in any curve. Analysis and simulation results of the proposed system are presented in this paper.