Speed and acceleration controllers for a light electric two-wheeled vehicle

Environmental concerns and the steadily decreasing oil supplies have promoted a significant interest in electric vehicles (EVs) as a solution for the mobility of the near future, especially in urban environments. The correct handling of the energy behavior on board is one of the most critical problems to be addressed, particularly in urban driving scenarios where the speed profiles – even on fixed routes – are a priori unknown since they are affected by significant unpredictable external factors. The high-level control of the energy flows requires an accurate knowledge of the vehicle dynamics, as speed and acceleration directly affect the battery power. To cope with these issues, this paper addresses the modeling and identification of the longitudinal dynamics of an electric two-wheeled vehicle, based on which a model-based motion control strategy is designed. The controller goal is to confine speed and accelerations within desired bounds while guaranteeing a good driving feeling. The approach is experimentally validated on an instrumented light electric two-wheeled vehicle.