Coordinated Path Tracking and Stability Strategy for Distributed Drive Electric Vehicles Using Model Predictive Control with Dual Feedback Adjustment

Distributed drive electric vehicles (DDEVs) provide enhanced maneuverability through independent wheel torque control, but coordinating precise path tracking with lateral stability remains challenging under aggressive driving conditions. This paper presents a coordinated control strategy that integrates model predictive control (MPC) for path tracking with a proportional gain controller for stability regulation. The proposed framework adopts a hierarchical design. The path tracking control leverages MPC to compute front steering commands while accounting for vehicle dynamics and preview errors. The stability adjustment uses dual proportional gain controllers to generate an additional yaw moment, which is adaptively balanced through a phase plane coordination mechanism, enhancing yaw stability during path tracking. The generated yaw moment is subsequently distributed to individual in-wheel motors with an optimization torque allocation method, respecting tire force limitations. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is validated with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experiments under a double lane change maneuver. Results show that the coordinated approach improves path following and maintains yaw stability more effectively than conventional methods.