Estimation of states and parameters of multi-axle distributed electric vehicle based on dual unscented Kalman filter

Distributed electric drive technology has become an important trend because of its ability to enhance the dynamic performance of multi-axle heavy vehicle. This article presents a joint estimation of vehicle’s state and parameters based on the dual unscented Kalman filter. First, a 12-degrees-of-freedom dynamic model of an 8 × 8 distributed electric vehicle is established. Considering the dynamic variation of some key parameters for heavy vehicle, a real-time parameter estimator is introduced, based on which simultaneous estimation of vehicle’s state and parameters is implemented under the dual unscented Kalman filter framework. Simulation results show that the dual unscented Kalman filter estimator has a high estimation accuracy for multi-axle distributed electric vehicle’s state and key parameters. Therefore, it is reliable for vehicle dynamics control without the influence of unknown or varying parameters.