Abstract:Aiming to address the problem of excessive slip of the driving wheels in a distributed drive electric tractor operating on split-μ road surfaces, which adversely affects vehicle stability and traction performance, a torque coordination and distribution control strategy aimed at reducing wheel slip ratio and enhancing overall vehicle stability was proposed. A longitudinal motion controller was designed to calculate the required system output torque, while a traction anti-slip controller and a yaw moment controller were developed accordingly. At the torque allocation layer, driving force distribution models were established for both the wheel-extrication condition and the split-μ road condition, and the optimal torque distribution was obtained by using quadratic programming. For complex operating conditions such as split-μ roads, a wheel coordinated steering strategy based on the pure pursuit model was further investigated to mitigate the effects of yaw moment and heading angle variations on the tractor. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, both simulation studies and field experiments were conducted. Experimental results demonstrated that under wheel-extrication conditions, the proposed control strategy achieved an output torque of 23.16 N·m and an extrication time of 1.5 s, representing reductions of 14.48% and 44.44%, respectively, compared with conventional PI control. These improvements ensured sufficient power reserve during extrication and significantly enhanced system responsiveness. Under split-μ road conditions, the proposed strategy enabled active regulation of system torque output, yielding average driving wheel slip ratios of 0.121 7, 0.111 9, 0.140 3, and 0.136 8. Compared with sliding mode control, the lateral deviation was maintained within -0.25 m to 0.25 m, allowing the tractor to track the desired speed while maintaining the intended trajectory. Overall, the proposed control strategy effectively improved the driving stability of the tractor under complex road conditions.