Dual-Envelope Constrained Nonlinear MPC for Distributed Drive Electric Vehicles Drifting Under Bounded Steering and Direct Yaw-Moment Control

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gan, Yurun, Song, Ziyu, Yang, Jing, Lin, Zheng, Zhang, Jianuo, Gu, Tongtong, Ding, Haitao, Xu, Nan, Yee, Por Lip, Ni, Wei, Luo, Jun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Gan, Yurun
Song, Ziyu
Yang, Jing
Lin, Zheng
Zhang, Jianuo
Gu, Tongtong
Ding, Haitao
Xu, Nan
Yee, Por Lip
Ni, Wei
Luo, Jun
author_facet Gan, Yurun
Song, Ziyu
Yang, Jing
Lin, Zheng
Zhang, Jianuo
Gu, Tongtong
Ding, Haitao
Xu, Nan
Yee, Por Lip
Ni, Wei
Luo, Jun
contents Distributed drive electric vehicles offer superior yaw moment control for autonomous drifting in extreme maneuvers. Conventional drift analysis constructs stability boundaries from open loop equilibria points and assumes a fixed envelope structure. However, coupling among control inputs reshapes the phase plane and shifts saddle point location, which can invalidate open loop envelopes when used for closed loop drifting. To address this issue, a saddle point coordinate model is established in this paper by combining a nonlinear tire model with the handling diagram and explicitly accounting for road adhesion coefficient, longitudinal velocity, front wheel steering angle, and additional yaw moment. Based on saddle point properties, an extended dual envelope framework is constructed in the phase plane of slip angle and yaw rate. Using the convergence tendency of state points toward saddle points under bounded control inputs, the outer envelope defines a recoverable set under constraints on front wheel steering angle and additional yaw moment. The inner envelope characterizes the non-drifting stability region associated with unsaturated tire forces. Finally, a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) controller is developed using the extended dual envelope constraint. Hardware-in-the-loop experiments show that, compared with NMPC without envelope constraints, the proposed method enables smoother convergence toward the drift saddle point, reduces the steady-state tracking errors of vehicle speed, sideslip angle, and yaw rate by 33.07%, 71.18%, and 31.27%, respectively, and decreases the peak tracking error by 63.66% under road-friction mismatch.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_07342
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dual-Envelope Constrained Nonlinear MPC for Distributed Drive Electric Vehicles Drifting Under Bounded Steering and Direct Yaw-Moment Control
Gan, Yurun
Song, Ziyu
Yang, Jing
Lin, Zheng
Zhang, Jianuo
Gu, Tongtong
Ding, Haitao
Xu, Nan
Yee, Por Lip
Ni, Wei
Luo, Jun
Systems and Control
Distributed drive electric vehicles offer superior yaw moment control for autonomous drifting in extreme maneuvers. Conventional drift analysis constructs stability boundaries from open loop equilibria points and assumes a fixed envelope structure. However, coupling among control inputs reshapes the phase plane and shifts saddle point location, which can invalidate open loop envelopes when used for closed loop drifting. To address this issue, a saddle point coordinate model is established in this paper by combining a nonlinear tire model with the handling diagram and explicitly accounting for road adhesion coefficient, longitudinal velocity, front wheel steering angle, and additional yaw moment. Based on saddle point properties, an extended dual envelope framework is constructed in the phase plane of slip angle and yaw rate. Using the convergence tendency of state points toward saddle points under bounded control inputs, the outer envelope defines a recoverable set under constraints on front wheel steering angle and additional yaw moment. The inner envelope characterizes the non-drifting stability region associated with unsaturated tire forces. Finally, a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) controller is developed using the extended dual envelope constraint. Hardware-in-the-loop experiments show that, compared with NMPC without envelope constraints, the proposed method enables smoother convergence toward the drift saddle point, reduces the steady-state tracking errors of vehicle speed, sideslip angle, and yaw rate by 33.07%, 71.18%, and 31.27%, respectively, and decreases the peak tracking error by 63.66% under road-friction mismatch.
title Dual-Envelope Constrained Nonlinear MPC for Distributed Drive Electric Vehicles Drifting Under Bounded Steering and Direct Yaw-Moment Control
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.07342