|
I'm still intrigued by this.
Pros of separate motors for each wheel
- No LSD required to put power to wheels with grip
- No diff needed at all!
- Traction control simpler: No need to brake the spinning wheel to transfer torque to the other. Just cut power to spinning wheels
- Torque vectoring algorithms can now be developed in software and rolled out as they improve. They could develop user-selectable drive modes.
Cons of one motor per wheel
- Max torque per wheel = 1/NUM_MOTORS. I'm guessing this is not an issue unless you're doing extreme rock crawling. Massive torque to a single wheel is what breaks things anyway
- If one motor dies things might get weird. But I assume the software could disable the other motor on the same axle and the failure mode is no different than one motor per axle.
- Even the slightest difference in torque will be felt in the vehicle under acceleration / deceleration. How difficult is it to ensure identical torque to each wheel? Sending equal power won't cut it if there's any efficiency variation in the motors. Is some kind of adaptive loop needed to compensate for this over time?
Assuming the last con is a non-issue (or easily solveable), overall this seems like a huge win. I'm not sure why more people aren't excited about this. This is a big step forward in drivetrain function and capability.
|