Improving a six-wheeler’sperformance both on- and off-road

Sammanfattning: In vehicles with electric transmission and independent wheel stations, there is apossibility to control propulsion, steering and suspension individually for eachwheel. This makes it possible to improve mobility in terrain as well as performanceand driving safety on road. This contribution concerns how a six wheeledelectric transmission vehicle should be modelled to enable evaluation of thedynamic behaviour both in terrain and on road. This is made by combiningmodelling of vehicle, transmission and tyre/terrain behaviour.A tyre/terrain model is needed to simulate driving on soft ground. Heretyre/terrain models for simulating driving with both rigid and pneumatic wheelson soft ground have been developed. A method to measure terrain parametersand drawbar pull for a six-wheeled vehicle on sand is proposed, tested andevaluated.To simulate a six wheeled vehicle at the handling limit on road, a vehicle modelwith a brush tyre model is used in order to get physically reasonable simulationresults during high combined slip conditions. Different vehicle configurationsare considered, where front wheel steering is combined with eithersecond axle steering, rear wheel steering or individual wheel torque control.By applying different vehicle slip angles and thereby limiting the DOF of thevehicle model, the vehicle configurations are evaluated during different drivingconditions. The results show that by applying individual torque control to thefront wheel steered vehicle, the performance is improved for all evaluated manoeuvres,and the achievable aligning torque during a rear wheel skid increasessignificantly if the vehicle slip angle is larger than the maximum front wheelsteering angle.To conclude, models of a six-wheeled vehicle with electric transmission andtyre models both for soft and rigid ground have been developed. These modelsform a simulation platform, which makes it possible to evaluate controlstrategies for the electric transmission with the purpose to improve mobility interrain as well as performance and driving safety on road. Some examples ofapplications of the models are included, e.g. improving at-the-limit handlingand pivot turning performance.