Differential Speed Steering Control for Four-Wheel Independent Driving Electric Vehicle

The increasing prospect of electric drive vehicles has led many different control schemes to apply on the driving system. Differential speed steering which do not use traditional steering mechanism is studied on a four-wheel-driving vehicle. By comparison with the traditional Ackerman-steered vehicle, differential-steered method shown its advantage on the simple structure. However, since the steering performance is coupling with the velocities of all wheels, the strategy of differential speed control is a technological challenge. With the analysis of kinematic model of the vehicle, the relation between the turning behavior and the wheel parameters are investigated. A steering speed control is proposed to get a steady turning performance. The control strategy is implemented in a simulation to verify its rationality.