The use of electric differential constitutes a technological advance of vehicle design along the concept of more electric vehicles. Electric differentials have the advantages of replacing a heavy and inefficient mechanical differential and transmission with more efficient, light, and small electric motors directly coupled to the wheels via a gear set or an in-wheel motor. To date, electric differentials have been proposed for two and four wheeled vehicles. Despite its long reported success and possible advantages in terms of flexibility and direct torque control of the wheels during cornering and risky manoeuvres, electric differential has several problems in practical applications; for instance, an increment of control loops and increase of computational effort.

Therefore, the main purpose of this project has been to achieve a simple and easy to implement electric differential that ensures both reliability and good path tracking. The proposed strategy has the advantages of being linear and having a straightforward implementation. Furthermore, rigorous proof of stability has also been achieved and connections with other controllers were addressed. Features and advantages of the proposed scheme have been illustrated via numerical simulations in a 4 kW system which is able to handle 500 kg mass and deliver peak power up to 10 kW during transit periods.

Francisco Perez-Pinal received the B.S. degree (1999) from ESIME CU, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Mexico, M.S. degree (2002) from the University of Birmingham and Nottingham, United Kingdom, and the Ph.D. degree (2008) from the University of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, all in electrical engineering.

Perez-Pinal came to Illinois Institute of Technology as a Fulbright Scholar to work in Dr. Emadi’s Power Electronics and Motor Drives Lab during the academic year 2006/2007. His research area is in electric differential and in-wheel motor control for electric propulsion systems. His work can potentially increase the safety, maneuverability, efficiency, and performance of all four- and three-wheeled vehicles including hybrid and electric cars. Because his system does not use a transmission or axle, the vehicles that incorporate it are more efficient and have a lower car floor, making them more spacious and stable.

In addition to his electric propulsion system research, Perez-Pinal’s topics of interest include electric drives, multi-motor synchronization, motion control, fuel cells, super capacitors, modeling, and analysis and control of power electronic systems. He is the author of more than 18 conference and journal papers and serves as regular reviewer for the IEEE transactions and power electronic conferences.

Perez-Pinal was an Assistant Professor in the Control Engineering Department at ESIME CU prior to joining IIT. He was also a visiting scholar in the Electrical Engineering Department at University of Manchester in 2006, where he developed power management strategies in the INTELLICON project.