ABSTRACT
This work evaluates the intrinsic contribution of the yaw rate reference to the overall handling performance of an electric vehicle with torque vectoring in terms of minimum-time manoeuvring. A ‘Time-Optimal’Yaw rate reference (TOY) derived from optimal control problems was generated which coincides exactly with the analytical steady-state single-track expression for yaw rate gain. Alternative yaw rate references are compared with TOY through closed-loop optimal control simulations. Results show that when yaw rate reference, parameterised by understeer gradient, is set away from the ‘time-optimal’ value, performance is degraded at a rate of 0.65 s/deg/g.
