Modeling and control of a radio-controlled model racing car

This paper presents an experimental platform and a modeling and control challenge posed to second-year Bachelor students in Automotive Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. The experimental platform consists of a customized radio-controlled 1:5-scale model racing car. The car consists of a digital signal processor, which can be programmed using Simulink, two motors, each driving one rear wheel, and sensors to measure the wheel speeds and the jaw rate. The radio-controlled car is used to give students hands-on experience in modeling and control, which is essential for a well-balanced control education. In this paper, it is shown that the radio-controlled car can be modeled using a bicycle model, which shows that this simple model can capture the essential vehicle dynamics. Furthermore, both a solution for torque vectoring and traction control are presented and demonstrated in this paper using the developed experimental platform.