Development and Experimental Implementation of Active Tilt Control System Using a Servo Motor Actuator for Narrow Tilting Electric Vehicle

Abstract

Light electric vehicles are alternative solutions to passenger cars in terms their lower costs and space saving in city traffic. Narrow tilting vehicles (NTV), known also as three–wheeled vehicles, can be equipped with an active tilting stability controller that tilts the vehicle automatically during cornering to enable lateral stability. There are mainly direct tilt control (DTC), steering tilt control (STC), and combined DTC–STC methods described in the literature. The DTC method is typically applied up to 10 km/h vehicle speeds. Considering city traffic and frequent start–stop cycles, the DTC method needs to be improved in terms of lower actuator torque and energy consumption. DTC can be designed by using either hydraulic or servo motor actuators. In state of the art, the servo motor actuator has not been studied in detail considering its integration and application aspects. Mostly, the actuator has been considered as a black box model. Proposed control method in this study enables improvements in the direct tilt control system (DTC) in terms of reducing the actuator peak torque and enables the application of DTC at higher vehicle speeds. Regarding the modeling of the electric actuator, a permanent magnet synchronous motor and field-oriented control model are also included in the simulation model. Modelling of the electric actuator enables accurate representation of actuator dynamics. In this way, battery Ah capacity can be sized and energy consumption of the electric actuator can be calculated for a given drive cycle. To this end, objective of this study is to design a direct tilt control method including the electrical drives and motion control concepts. In this way, an application methodology of the servo motor actuator is developed and implemented on a narrow tilting three-wheeled electric vehicle. Interactions between tilt control system and the servo motor actuator system are described from practical aspects.

Utilizing Dynamic Analysis in the Complex Design of an Unconventional Three-Wheeled Vehicle with Enhancing Cornering Safety

“…However, these systems employ different steering and front-wheel suspension methods to achieve this objective. An illustrative example of such a solution involves the utilization of an actuator with a servo motor to actively tilt the vehicle frame [39], effectively mitigating the effects of centrifugal forces during cornering. This system has undergone testing on an electric vehicle, albeit one with a shorter wheelbase and narrower track width, commonly referred to as a "narrow vehicle.…”

Direct Tilt Controller Design with Disturbance Compensation and Implementation for a Narrow Tilting Electric Vehicle

“…Past research and studies have established theoretical background, simulation, and experimental data on tilt control technology, as summarized in [18].…”

“…The servo motor in this study refers to a permanent magnet synchronous motor with sinusoidal operation mode. A comparison of hydraulic and servo motor actuators for tilt control applications was studied in [18]. In this section, the advantages of servo motor actuators are highlighted with further features and summarized below:…”

Performance Improvement during Attitude Motion of a Vehicle Using Aerodynamic-Surface-Based Anti-Jerk Predictive Controller

“…For example, the authors of [ 44 , 45 ] used an anti-roll bar methodology to reduce the impact of load transfer during cornering. In [ 46 , 47 ], tilting control systems were developed to improve vehicle safety during cornering. In [ 48 ], we have designed a preview-based attitude controller to reduce the load transfer effect and track the desired roll and pitch position during cornering or forward acceleration to enhance ride quality.…”