Predictive Approaches to Rear Axle Regenerative Braking Control in Hybrid Vehicles

Paper in proceeding, 2009

We consider the problem of controlling the regenerative braking at rear axle in hybrid vehicles. In particular, the focus of this work is the maximization of regenerative braking in cornering maneuvers on low friction surfaces. In such cases, excessive braking at the rear axle might induce instability. We present and compare two predictive control approaches, where the objective is maximizing the regenerative braking and distributing the friction braking at the four wheels, while (i) delivering the braking force requested by the driver, (ii) preserving vehicle stability and (iii) fulfilling system constraints (e.g., bounds on regenerative braking set by the hybrid powertrain). We present simulation results in combined braking and cornering scenarios, showing that the proposed approaches are able to distribute the requested braking at the four wheels in order to counteract undesired effects, on vehicle stability, introduced by regenerative braking.