High-Bandwidth Hybrid Brake Control for Enhanced Stopping of Heavy Electric Vehicles

Minimising braking distance during emergency braking while ensuring vehicle stability can potentially reduce road accidents. This study addresses emergency braking with a co-operative braking strategy for Heavy Commercial Electric Road Vehicles (HCERVs). This strategy is developed using Sliding Mode Control (SMC) for wheel slip control and Model Predictive Control (MPC) for torque distribution between friction and regenerative braking. This strategy is designed to leverage the higher bandwidth of the regenerative braking system to improve the utilisation of tire-road friction. The methodology was evaluated on a Hardware-in-Loop (HIL) system interfaced with IPG TruckMaker®, focusing on evaluating wheel lock prevention and optimal braking performance. The proposed strategy provided an improvement in braking distance of 5-30 % and without any prolonged wheel lock, ensuring vehicle stability.