Electronic Control Unit for Automatic Control of Torque Vectoring

Sammanfattning: Torque vectoring for automobiles is used to increase cornering speeds and improve road safety by manipulating the car's wheel-speeds. One method of torque vectoring for a rear-wheel-drive Formula Student race car is using a dual-clutch to slip the inner wheel thus create a yaw moment during cornering. The goal of this thesis was to develop and design an electronic control unit to automatically control the two clutches to achieve the target yaw moment. By building on the previous development of a dual-clutch and a theoretical control model, this thesis was delimited to the implementation of a control algorithm on the hardware used to control the dual-clutch. Ulrich and Eppinger's product development method was used to develop an initial alpha-prototype for proof-of-concept development. A beta-prototype was then developed to control the dual-clutch via a Controller Area Network (CAN), before being packaged into a final product, the Torque Vectoring Electronic Control Unit (TVECU). The final product resulted in an electronic control unit capable of being mounted to a mechanical dual-clutch and regulating two Gen6 clutch actuators, thereby controlling the yaw moment. It can then be used to test, validate and further develop a dual-clutch torque vectoring system, and lays the foundations for a next-generation commercial model.