Parameter Optimization of Model Predictive Direct Motion Control for Distributed Drive Electric Vehicles Considering Efficiency and the Driving Feeling

This paper presents a novel motion control strategy based on model predictive control (MPC) for distributed drive electric vehicles (DDEVs), aiming to simultaneously control the longitudinal and lateral motion while considering efficiency and the driving feeling. Initially, we analyze the vehicle’s dynamic model, considering the vehicle body and in-wheel motors, to establish the foundation for model predictive control. Subsequently, we propose a model predictive direct motion control (MPDMC) approach that utilizes a single CPU to directly follow the driver’s commands by generating voltage references with a minimum cost function. The cost function of MPDMC is constructed, incorporating factors such as the longitudinal velocity, yaw rate, lateral displacement, and efficiency. We extensively analyze the weighting parameters of the cost function and introduce an optimization algorithm based on particle swarm optimization (PSO). This algorithm takes into account the aforementioned factors as well as the driving feeling, which is evaluated using a trained long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network. The LSTM network labels the response under different weighting parameters in various working conditions, i.e., “Nor”, “Eco”, and “Spt”. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the optimized MPDMC through simulations conducted using MATLAB and CarSim software. Four typical scenarios are considered, and the results demonstrate that the optimized MPDMC outperforms the baseline methods, achieving the best performance.