Optimal component sizing of a four-wheel independently-actuated electric vehicle with a real-time torque distribution strategy

This paper investigates the optimal component sizing problem for a four-wheel-independently-actuated electric vehicle. First, a real-time optimal distribution strategy is devised to allocate the torque demands to each actuation motor of the vehicle with the aim to make them work in high-efficiency regions as often as possible. The primary goal is to minimize the energy consumption per hundred kilometers while maximizing the driving range per charge. Then, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) is employed to globally search for the optimal sizing solution, which is later verified by the Genetic algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed PSO-based optimization method, combined with the real-time torque distribution strategy, can effectively downsize the main powertrain components and lead to better energy consumption.