Abstract: This paper proposes a rigid differential steering of articulated vehicle by taking advantage of hub motor characteristic of distributed-drive articulated vehicle, and constructs an electro-hydraulic hybrid steering mode with hydraulic steering as the main and with differential steering as the auxiliary. The differential steering dynamic model of articulated vehicle is established to reveal the relationship between cornering resistance and differential torque, and, by taking the differential torque acting on the front body of articulated vehicle as an example, the torque distribution method of each wheel torque is investigated and used to formulate the control strategy of hybrid steering system. Moreover, the articulated vehicle is simulated along the single lane changing path, and the energy consumptions are evaluated and compared for the hydraulic steering system and the motor with and without differential steering. Simulation results show that the electro-hydraulic hybrid steering mode can realize the effective energy saving of articulated vehicle under different load and speed conditions.

Key words: articulated vehicle, distributed driving, electro-hydraulic hybrid steering, energy saving