<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper presents a low-speed assisted steering control approach for
distributed drive electric vehicles. When the vehicle is driven at low speed,
the braking of the inner-rear wheel is combined with differential drive to
reduce the turning radius. A hierarchical control structure has been designed to
achieve comprehensive control. The upper-level controller tracks the expected
yaw rate and vehicle side-slip angle through a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR)
algorithm. The desired yaw rate and vehicle side-slip angle are obtained
according to the reference vehicle model, which can be regulated by the driver
through the accelerator pedal. The lower-level controller uses a quadratic
programming algorithm to distribute the yaw moment and driving moment to each
wheel, aiming to minimize tire load rate variance. Simulation and real vehicle
tests compare three steering modes: front-wheel steering only, front-wheel
steering + differential drive assisted steering, and front-wheel steering +
differential drive combined with differential braking assisted steering. The
results show that the proposed coordinated control of drive and braking reduces
the vehicle’s turning radius by 20% compared to just front-wheel steering, which
is beneficial for improving the handling of distributed drive vehicles.</div></div>