Integral Sliding Mode for the Torque-Vectoring Control of Fully Electric Vehicles: Theoretical Design and Experimental Assessment

This paper presents an integral sliding mode (ISM) formulation for the torque-vectoring (TV) control of a fully electric vehicle. The performance of the controller is evaluated in steady-state and transient conditions, including the analysis of the controller performance degradation due to its real-world implementation. This potential issue, which is typical of sliding mode formulations, relates to the actuation delays caused by the drivetrain hardware configuration, signal discretization, and vehicle communication buses, which can provoke chattering and irregular control action. The controller is experimentally assessed on a prototype electric vehicle demonstrator under the worst-case conditions in terms of drivetrain layout and communication delays. The results show a significant enhancement of the controlled vehicle performance during all maneuvers.