Travel Reduction Control of Distributed Drive Electric Agricultural Vehicles Based on Multi-Information Fusion

Abstract

In agricultural vehicles with internal combustion engines, owing to the use of rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, it is difficult to obtain information regarding the slip of the driving wheels. Excessive wheel slip, an inevitable phenomenon occurring during agricultural activities, can easily damage the original soil surface and result in excessive energy consumption. To solve these problems, a distributed drive agricultural vehicle (DDAV) based on multi-information fusion was proposed. The actual travel reduction of each wheel was calculated by determining the vehicle parameters in order to deliver the required torque to the four drive wheels via sliding mode control (SMC) and incremental proportional-integral (PI) control. Through this process, the vehicle always operates in a straight line. Test results show that, on a uniform surface, the travel reduction of each wheel can be maintained at the target value by using the incremental PI control strategy, with only minor fluctuations, to make the vehicle run in a straight line (R2 = 0.9999). Furthermore, on a separated surface, the travel reduction of each wheel can be maintained at the target value, and using the SMC strategy enables more identical coefficient of gross tractions for each wheel to make the vehicle run in a straight line (R2 = 0.9902). Unlike the non-control strategy, the vehicle reaches a stable state within 1 s, owing to the use of a controller that can effectively reduce the impact of road changes on vehicle velocity. This study can provide a reference for the drive control of DDAVs.

Wheel Slip Control Applied to an Electric Tractor for Improving Tractive Efficiency and Reducing Energy Consumption

“…A step signal was applied to the input (V x ) using the acceleration pedal, and the velocities V W1 and V W2 could be measured from analog output signals of the inverters that drive the wheels, also considering a sampling time of 50 ms. Thus, one can obtain Equation (19), whose discretized representation corresponds to Equation (20). The pole-zero maps of the plant model represented in the continuous and discrete domains are shown in Figures 5 and 6, respectively.…”

“…The results showed that the mean wheel slip in active ballasting mode was lower than that without ballasting control, but this aspect was only investigated in terms of HIL tests. Sliding mode control (SMC) and incremental proportional-integral (IPI) control were compared in [20] to achieve travel reduction in electric tractors, but the slippage of traction wheels was not analyzed in detail. Similarly, integral sliding mode (ISM) and proportional-integral (PI) control applied in wheel slip control are compared in [21] in terms of simulation results only.…”

Sliding Mode Speed Control in Synchronous Motors for Agriculture Machinery: A Chattering Suppression Approach

“…Slip problems in agricultural vehicles are present due to environmental conditions; consequently, torque control is needed for each wheel. Integrating PI and sliding mode technique control with pertinent parameter acquisition allows the correct torque to be delivered to the wheels for tracking tasks [25]. Some fertigation machines are powered by asynchronous motors.…”

Research on Path Tracking for an Orchard Mowing Robot Based on Cascaded Model Predictive Control and Anti-Slip Drive Control

“…Compared with the Pure Pursuit algorithm, the tracking error is reduced by more than 20%, and the tracking accuracy is significantly improved. Chenyuan Sun [12] proposed a distributed-drive agricultural vehicle based on multi-information fusion, in which the torque required by the wheels is distributed through a sliding mode control and incremental proportional integral control so that the total traction coefficient of each wheel is consistent, and the vehicle runs in a straight line to solve the problem of excessive wheel sliding, but the accuracy of path tracking is not solved.…”