Electronic Differential Control with Vehicle State Observer Based on Extended

Kalman Filter
Li Jun
1
, Duan Jie-li
1
, and Tian Shen
2
1
College of Engineering
South China Agricultural University
Guangzhou, China
e-mail: ad_sffg@tom.com
2
School of Civil Engineering and Transportation
South China University of Technology
Guangzhou, China
e-mail: sdfrwet@21cn.com
AbstractThe growing demands for high level of energy
efficiency have given much new impetus to the development of
electric vehicle in Agricultural Machines. To improve the
performance of the state observer for an 8-DOF four-wheel
vehicle, a state observer based on the Extended Kalman Filter
is proposed. With the observer, the tire-road forces and the
vehicle roll velocity are estimated accurately according to the
simulation results. With the consideration of the nonlinear
characters of tire and electric vehicle, the electronic
differential controller is proposed to select the wheel slip ratios
as the control tracking variables and distribute the torques to
ensure the steering stability by using modified exponent-
approaching sliding mode control method. The proposed
electronic differential controller is robust to improve the
handling performance and control response of electric vehicle
with the numerical verification.
Keywords- electrical differential control; Extended Kalman
Filter; sliding mode control; Magic Formula tyre model
I. INTRODUCTION
Presently, continuing interests of the green agricultural
equipments have further stimulated the development of
electric off-road vehicles. The in-wheel motor multi-drive
systems for electric off-road vehicles have advantages over
the classical construction with one central machine. Wheel
motor drive systems provide better handling stability with
the electronic differential control during steering manoeuvres.
However, it is difficult for the steering control system to
obtain directly some parameters including the sideslip angle,
yaw rate and lateral velocity of vehicle. Therefore, several
virtual observers had been employed to estimate the states of
nonlinear dynamic vehicle. The sliding mode observers were
proposed to replace the expensive sensors used for the
measurement of tires forces, side slip angle and velocity of
vehicle [1, 2]. The H observer-based controller was proved
to have considerable improvements in the vehicle handling
when the sideslip angle was unavailable for measurement [3].
To address vehicle nonlinearities and unmodeled dynamics,
the unscented Kalman filtering technique was applied for the
observer of lateral tire forces and sideslip angle [4, 5].
Different from the mechanical differential, the forces and
rotational speeds of the electrical differential motors cannot
automatically coordinate while cornering for the required
changes of steering angle and torques. Based on Ackerman
turning geometry, many approaches taken account of the
speed difference between the drive wheels when steering
were proposed [6, 7]. Other steering controllers using the
vehicle speed as input were designed to guarantee the
electric vehicle dynamics and stability [8, 9].
In this paper, an eight-DOF nonlinear model of vehicle is
developed with some general assumptions to obtain steering
dynamics. Consequently, a vehicle state observer based on
the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is proposed. To improve
the performance of electronic differential controller, the
modified exponent-approaching sliding mode control scheme
is implemented with the selection of wheel torques as control
variables. The proposed controller is robust to improve the
handling performance and control response of vehicle.
II. VEHICLE STEERING MODEL
To describe vehicle dynamic movements including roll
and yaw, a vehicle model with eight degrees of freedom is
developed in this section, which comprising the longitudinal
motion in x and y direction, rolling motion around x-axis,
yawing motion around z-axis and wheel rotational motion of
four tires.
Assume that the front steering angle and side slip
angle at vehicle center of gravity are small, then
vxV vyV sin cos1
Where V is the total velocity at vehicle center of gravity, vx
and vy are the longitudinal and lateral velocity at vehicle
center of gravity.
Ignore the aerodynamic forces and rolling resistance of
the tires, thus, the eight-DOF nonlinear model of vehicle can
be obtained [10]
(1)
While m is the vehicle mass, mS is the mass of the sprung
mass, Fxf and Fxr are the longitudinal tire force on front and
rear tires, Fyf and Fyr are the lateral tire force on front and rear
tires, r is the yaw rate of vehicle, is the vehicle roll angle,
hs is the distance between the sprung mass center of gravity
to the x-axis, lf and lr are the longitudinal distance from
vehicle center of gravity to front and rear tires, C is the
( )
( ) ( )
( )
1 2 1 2 1 2
1 2 1 2 1 2
1 2 1 2 1 2
( )
2
x r xf xf xr xr yf yf
x r s s xf xf yf yf yr yr
z z r xz f xf f xf f yf f yf r yr r yr
f f
X mv F F F F F F
Y mv m h F F F F F F
M I I l F l F l F l F l F l F
d
l K

= + = + + + +
= + = + + + + +
= = + + +
+

( ) ( )
2
f r
r r
x x xz r s s x r s s
d
l K
d d
M I I m h v K m h g C

= + = +

2011 International Conference on Computer Distributed Control and Intelligent Environmental Monitoring
978-0-7695-4350-5/11 $26.00 2011 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/CDCIEM.2011.376
172
equivalent damping coefficient of the rolling motion, Kf and
Kr are the front and rear wheel tire camber thrust
coefficients, df/d and dr/d are the front and rear wheel
camber angles per unit roll angle, Iz is the total yaw moment
of inertia around the vertical axis passing through the vehicle
center of gravity, and Ix is the rolling moment of inertia of
the sprung mass around the x-axis.
Using (1), the vehicle longitudinal acceleration ax and
lateral acceleration ay are
| |
( ) | |
1 2 1 2 1 2
1 2 1 2 1 2
( )
x xf xf xr xr yf yf
y xf xf yf yf yr yr
a F F F F F F m
a F F F F F F m

= + + + +
= + + + + +
(2)
The longitudinal slip ratio of the front or rear wheel is
defined as
( )
, , , ,
, =1, 2
fi ri fi ri fi ri fi ri
r u u i = (3)
Where fi,ri is the rotational speed of front or rear wheel, r is
the wheel effective radius. Variable u fi,ri is the velocity of
front or rear wheel, and it can be calculated from
1 2
1 2
2 2
2 2
f f
wf r f wf r f
r r
wr r r wr r r
b b
u V l u V l
b b
u V l u V l


= = + +
= + = +
| | | |
| |
\ . \ .
| | | |
| |
\ . \ .
(4)
Where bf, br are the front and rear track of vehicle.
The slip angles at front and rear tires are [11]
1 2
1 2
arctan arctan
2 2
arctan arctan
2 2
x f r x f r
f f
x f r x f r
x r r x r r
r r
x r r x r r
v l v l
v b v b
v l v l
v b v b






+ +
= =
+

= =
+
(5)
With the definition of the height of center of gravity of
vehicle as constant h, the normal load Fzfi,zri of front and rear
tires can be written as
( )
( )
( 1)
2 2
, =1, 2
( 1)
2 2
i y x r
zfi
f r f f r
i f y x
zri
f r r f r
ma h ma h l mg
F
l l b l l
i
l ma h ma h mg
F
l l b l l
= +
+ +
= + +
+ +
| |
|

\ .

| |

\ .
(6)
The Magic Formula tire model is used to describe tire
behavior as follows:
( ) { } | | sin arctan arctan
v
h
y D C Bx E Bx Bx
Y y S
x X S
=
= +
=

(7)
Where Y are the output variables including longitudinal
force Fx, lateral force Fy or aligning moment Mz, X are the
input variables including slip angle or slip ratio , Sh is the
horizontal shift, Sv is the vertical shift.
With the selection of the constants a1, a2, , a8, the
stiffness factor B, shape factor C, peak value D and
curvature factor E can be expressed as functions of the
normal load Fz as follows
( ) ( ) ( )
3 4 5
2 2
1 2 6 7 8
sin arctan lateral force
,
z
z z z z
BCD a a a F
D a F a F E a F a F a
=
= = + +
(8)
To describe the lateral transient behavior of tires, the
relaxation length is introduced, so that,
( )
, , ,
, =1, 2
x
yfi yri yfi yrii yfi yri
v
F F F i

(9)
Where
, yfi yri
F is the lateral force in the Magic Formula tyre
model frame.
III. STATE OBSERVER DESIGN
Due to the EKF is an optimal stochastic observer in the
least-square sense for the estimation of nonlinear systems,
the proposed vehicle state observer is designed by using the
EKF technique to estimate the tire-force and dynamics of
vehicle especially including the roll angular velocity.
Defining:
State vector:
( ) ( ) | |
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
, , , , , , , ,
r yf yf yr yr xf xf xr xr
x F F F F F F F F = + +
Input vector: | |
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
, , , , , , , ,
f f r r fz fz rz rz
u F F F F =
Output vector: | | , , ,
r x y x
y a a v =
For this application, the nonlinear eight-DOF dynamic
state-space equations of vehicle are expressed as
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( )
0 0
0 ~ , , ( ) ~ (0, ), ( ) ~ (0, )
x t A x t x t Bu t Gw t
y t Cx t v t
x x P w t Q v t R
= + +
= +

(10)
Where w(t) and v(t) are the zero-mean Gaussian process
noise and measurement noise vectors with covariance
matrices Q and R respectively.
Assuming a sampling time of Ts, the corresponding
discrete time model can be obtained as
( )
1
~ (0, ), ~ (0, )
k d k k d k k
k d k k
k K k K
x A x x B u w
y C x v
w Q v R
+
= + +
= + (11)
Where Ad I + ATs , Bd BTs , Cd = C, RK = R / Ts ,
0
( ) ,
s
s
T
A T T
k K s
w e Gw d Q GQG T

The prediction of the state covariance requires the

online computation of Jacobian matrix, defined as
( ) | |
1
1
k
k d k k x x
A A x x
x
+
+ =

(12)
The recursive algorithm of the Extended Kalman Filter
can be derived as below.
Step 1: State prediction (time update)
( )
1 1 1 1

,
T
k d k k d k k k k k K
x A x x B u P A P A Q
+ + + +
= + = +

(13)
Step 2: Innovation (measurement update)
( )
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

,
k k k k d k k k k d k
x x K y C x P P K C P
+ + + + + + + + +
= + = (14)
The Extended Kalman Filter gain matrix K is calculated by
( )
1
1 1 1
T T
k k d d k d K
K P C C P C R

+ + +
= + (15)
173
IV. ELECTRONIC DIFFERENTIAL CONTROLLER DESIGN
To avoid skidding, the speed of the inner wheel has to
be different from that of the outer wheel while cornering.
Assume that the front and rear tracks of the vehicle are
equal and the drive wheels are turning without slip. So that,
the conventional electronic differential controller of electric
vehicle is designed using the Ackerman turning geometry.
In the geometry, the difference between the angular speeds
of the wheel drives is expressed by the relation
, 0
,
2
2
f r
i f r
R b
R b

+
=

(16)
Wherei and o are the angular velocities of the inner and
outer drive wheels, R is the radius of rotation.
However, the longitudinal slip of tires and nonlinear
dynamic characters of vehicle cannot be neglected for better
steering control. Therefore, an electronic differential control
scheme based on sliding mode control and EKF state
observer is proposed. The proposed controller chooses the
tire longitudinal slip ratios as control variables not the wheel
speed, and distributes the torque value to track the reference
slip ratio of each drive wheel by using the sliding mode
control. The EKF state observer is employed to estimate the
vehicle state parameters and feedback them to the steering
controller.
The dynamics of dual rear wheel drives are given by
, =1, 2
w ri ri xri
J T F r i = (17)
Where Jw is the wheel moment of inertia, Tri is the torque
of rear wheel.
Note that the variables and both are the functions of the
slip ratios from (3), (6) and (7), the speed u ri and normal
load Fzri of the rear tires can be considered as constants
compared to the slip ratio when the control system is stable
and if the sampling period is short enough. So that, (17) can
be rewritten as
, =1, 2
ri ri ri
A BT i = +

(18)
Further, the sliding surface of the electronic differential
control scheme is given as
( )
*
ri ri ri
S c

= (19)
Where ri
*
is the reference longitudinal slip ratio which is rel
ative to the adhesion coefficient.
To guarantee rapid responses and depress system ripple,
(19) can be derived as follow
Figure 1. The block diagram of the proposed controller
ri
ri ri
ri
S
S S
S

=
+

(20)
Where c, , andare positive control constants.
Since the control performance of a discrete system is
much influenced by the sampling period Ts and constant , it
is necessary to modify the exponential approximation law.
The discrete modified form of (20) is selected as follow
( )
( )
( ) ( )
( )
ri
ri ri ri
ri
S k
S k S k S k
S k

=
+

(21)
Then, (21) can be rewritten in the form
( )
( )
1 ( ) ( ) ( )
( )
ri
ri ri s ri s ri
ri
S k
S k S k T S k T S k
S k

+ =
+
(22)
When the sampling period Ts is sufficiently short, the
existence of sliding surface for a discrete controller can be
guaranteed if the following equation is satisfied
{
[ ( 1) ( )]sign[ ( )] 0
[ ( 1) ( )]sign[ ( )] 0
S k S k S k
S k S k S k


+ <
+ + >
(23)
Substituting (22) into (23), it is easy to prove that the
modified discrete sliding mode control system is global
asymptotical stable when the values of the control constants
c, and all are within their bound.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed nonlinear
vehicle state observer and electronic differential controller,
some numerical simulations are implemented with the 8DOF
model and Magic Formula tire model. The specifications of
vehicle is listed in Table I. The vehicle is undergoing an
extreme maneuver with a small steering angle = 2 (positive
indicates a left turn), and a constant speed of 20m/s.
TABLE I. SPECIFICATIONS OF VEHICLE WITH DUAL WHEEL DRIVES
Vehicle mass, m 1252kg
Distance from vehicle C.G. to front tire, lf 1.2 m
longitudinal distance from vehicle C.G. to rear tire, lr 1.37m
Height of vehicle C.G., h 0.53m
Wheel effective radius, r 0.32m
Yaw moment of inertia around vertical axis, Iz
2027kgm
2
Wheel moment of inertia, J 2.4 kgm
2
Rolling moment of inertia around x-axis, Ix 381kgm
2
Sprung mass, ms 1020kg
Distance between sprung mass C.G. to x-axis, hs 0.42m
Vehicle track, bf = br 1.4m
SMC Controller EKF Observer

*
r

1 r
T
2 r
T
1 xr
F
2 xr
F

Magic Formula Tire Model

zr
F
2 r

2 f

1 r

2 r

zf
F
174
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 2. Simulation results of the proposed EKF observer
(a)
(b)
Figure 3. Responses of rear torques, wheel velocities and slip ratios with
the proposed sliding model controller
Fig. 2 (a)-(c) show the responses of side slip angle, roll
angular velocity, yaw rate and lateral forces with sliding
mode steering control. The results demonstrate that the
proposed vehicle state observer based on EKF is a suitable
estimator and matches the actual parameters excellently.
These torque values, velocities and slip ratios of the rear left
and right wheel are chosen to ensure differential control
feasibility as seen in Fig. 3 (a)-(b). With a stepwise left turn,
the modified exponent-approaching sliding mode controller
can adaptively adjust the inner and outer wheel drive torque
to track the reference slip ratios rapidly.
VI. CONLUSIONS
This paper discusses the electronic differential control for
an electric vehicle with independently wheel drives. An
eight-DOF four-wheel model for state observer was derived.
With the proposed EKF observer, the important parameters
affecting vehicle stability and the risk of skipping can be
estimate, especially including the tire-road forces and the
vehicle roll angular velocity. Different to the conventional
electronic differential controller, the control variables of the
proposed controller based on modified exponent approaching
sliding mode control method are the slip ratios of the wheel
drives not the rotational speeds. The proposed observer and
controller are validated by simulation results.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to acknowledge the referees, Prof.
Hong Tian-shen for helpful discussions on this topic and the
financial support of Department of Education of Guangdong
Province, China.
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