Exploring Vehicle Lateral Motion Limit: Neutral Steering Control for Dual-Motor All-Wheel-Drive Electric Vehicles

TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploring Vehicle Lateral Motion Limit

T2 - Neutral Steering Control for Dual-Motor All-Wheel-Drive Electric Vehicles

AU - Zhang, Lei

AU - Xu, Tongliang

AU - Wang, Zhenpo

AU - Sun, Fengchun

AU - Ding, Xiaolin

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 IEEE.

PY - 2026/6/1

Y1 - 2026/6/1

N2 - Maximizing the utilization of lateral motion limits can significantly enhance vehicle safety under extreme driving conditions. This paper presents a neutral steering chassis coordinated control scheme to extend the lateral motion limits of Dual-Motor All-Wheel-Drive Electric Vehicles (DMAWD EVs). First, an optimization model is developed using the tire friction ellipse to determine the maximum lateral force. It is demonstrated that a vehicle can fully exploit its lateral motion limits under neutral steering. Then a driving torque allocation method for the front and rear axles and a sliding mode control method for the electro-hydraulic composite anti-lock braking system are designed to fulfill the driver's driving intentions under normal driving conditions. In extreme driving conditions, a torque vectoring control strategy is proposed to coordinate the motors' driving torques and the hydraulic braking force at each wheel, while a Smith predictor-based control scheme is introduced to enhance the hydraulic braking responsiveness. Furthermore, a coordinated pitch and roll attitude controller is developed to maintain neutral steering. Finally, the proposed control scheme is verified through comprehensive testing on a Hardware-in-the-Loop platform. Results indicate that the maximum lateral acceleration increases by 18.14% under the open-loop sine steering scenario. The proposed control scheme renders DMAWD EVs to have comparable performance with four-wheel-independent-drive electric vehicles.

AB - Maximizing the utilization of lateral motion limits can significantly enhance vehicle safety under extreme driving conditions. This paper presents a neutral steering chassis coordinated control scheme to extend the lateral motion limits of Dual-Motor All-Wheel-Drive Electric Vehicles (DMAWD EVs). First, an optimization model is developed using the tire friction ellipse to determine the maximum lateral force. It is demonstrated that a vehicle can fully exploit its lateral motion limits under neutral steering. Then a driving torque allocation method for the front and rear axles and a sliding mode control method for the electro-hydraulic composite anti-lock braking system are designed to fulfill the driver's driving intentions under normal driving conditions. In extreme driving conditions, a torque vectoring control strategy is proposed to coordinate the motors' driving torques and the hydraulic braking force at each wheel, while a Smith predictor-based control scheme is introduced to enhance the hydraulic braking responsiveness. Furthermore, a coordinated pitch and roll attitude controller is developed to maintain neutral steering. Finally, the proposed control scheme is verified through comprehensive testing on a Hardware-in-the-Loop platform. Results indicate that the maximum lateral acceleration increases by 18.14% under the open-loop sine steering scenario. The proposed control scheme renders DMAWD EVs to have comparable performance with four-wheel-independent-drive electric vehicles.

KW - Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric vehicles

KW - chassis coordinated control

KW - lateral motion limit

KW - neutral steering

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105022455783

U2 - 10.1109/TVT.2025.3634595

DO - 10.1109/TVT.2025.3634595

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105022455783

SN - 0018-9545

VL - 75

SP - 9716

EP - 9730

JO - IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

JF - IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

IS - 6

ER -