Title: Rollover stabilisation in electric vehicles

Authors: Richa Bansal, Tushar Sharma, Sudipto Mukherjee

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Huaz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Huaz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Huaz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India

Abstract: Rollover is conventionally resisted in vehicles through passive design techniques like low CG height to wheel-base ratio and some suspension design principles. Of late, active traction and suspension control have been suggested to limit rollover instances. The automobile trajectory is defined by rigid body kinematics once rollover is initiated. Since a rollover incidence, from wheel lift off to impact takes as much as 3 sec, the possibility of rollover prevention by actuating the independent in-wheel motors in electric vehicles is investigated. The necessary motor orientation and torque to control the rollover of airborne vehicle are determined. A vehicle solver (VS) code is developed in CarSim which puts a rollover stabilisation system in effect as soon as the wheels lift off the ground. Simulation results show that mild to medium vehicle rollovers can be prevented when a stabilising angular momentum is provided by rotating the axis of the airborne wheels.

Keywords: electric vehicles; rollover stabilisation; in-wheel motors; airborne vehicles; vehicle lift off; robot wheels; gyroscopic effect; centre of mass; active intervention techniques; active torque control; vehicle safety; simulation; angular momentum.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2009.032759

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2009 Vol.4 No.4, pp.315 - 329

Published online: 19 Apr 2010 *

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