Implementation and Test of a Fault-Tolerant Wheel Hub Drive System for an Electric Vehicle

In electric vehicles with wheel hub drives, fault tolerance of the drives is a desirable feature. This paper reports on design, implementation and tests of a fault tolerant multiphase wheel-hub drive system. Most suitable topologies of motor and converter are selected, and a model-based fault detection is described. In addition, the handling of faults in order to avoid unwanted braking or oscillating torque is discussed. The complete fault-tolerant wheel hub drive is tested on a test bench, and experimental results from a test in a concept car demonstrate the effectiveness of the solution.