Sliding mode direct yaw-moment control design for in-wheel electric vehicles

The direct yaw-moment control system can significantly enhance vehicle stability in critical situations. In this paper, the direct yaw-moment control strategies are proposed for in-wheel electric vehicles by using sliding mode (SM) and nonlinear disturbance observer (NDOB) techniques. The ideal sideslip angle at the center of gravity and the yaw rate are first calculated based on a linear two degree of freedom vehicle model. Then, the actual sideslip angle is identified and estimated by constructing a state observer. On this basis, a traditional discontinuous SM direct yaw-moment controller is designed to guarantee that the sideslip angle and the yaw rate will approach the ideal ones as closely as possible. To tackle the chattering problem existing in the traditional SM controller, a second-order sliding mode (SOSM) controller is further designed by taking the derivative of the controller as the new control, which implies that the actual control can be an integration of the SOSM controller. Finally, to avoid the large gains in the derived controllers, by combining the NDOB with the derived controllers, the composite control schemes are also proposed. In comparison with the discontinuous first-order SM controller, the proposed SOSM controller is shown to be more effective.