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Research Concept Vehicle Platforms

ITRL at KTH have three advanced rolling vehicle platforms used in research, demonstration and education concerning future sustainable transport systems. The purpose of the vehicles is to have platforms where research results can be implemented and evaluated in real-life quickly and easily thanks to their modular design.

All RCVs - Research Concept Vehicle platforms aim at realizing a research-based concept vehicle that will be used to validate and demonstrate current and future research results. The designs are modular to include research from several disciplines and the design is highly versatile enabling a wide array of different functions to be tested, e.g 2WD, 4WD, 2WS, 4WS, torque vectoring, SBW, etc.

The RCV platform was built in 2012 as a collaborative effort between ITM, SCI and EECS schools at KTH and funded soley by KTH own funding. The RCV-E platform was a joint project between ITRL and Ericsson and was built in 2017 just before the Mobile World Congress.

Past projects that utilized the RCV platform

There are a number of research projects carried out at KTH that have used the RCV, below some examples:

  • Control strategies for energy efficient over-actuated vehicles (KTH funded, )

  • On Yaw Stability Control for Electric Vehicle with In-Wheel Motors (KTH funded, )

  • AutoDrive: Cooperative active safety for Automated Vehicles (H2020 funded, )

  • Fault-Tolerant Over-Actuated Hybrid Electric Vehicles, (  funded project)

  • Generic Vehicle Motion Modelling and Control for Enhanced Driving Dynamics and Energy Management (  funded project)

  • Innovative lightweight vehicle concept with wheel corner modules, (  funded project)

RCV and RCV-E specifications

Functions RCV

  • Fully computerized drive-by-wire technology
  • All electric drive with 4 in-wheel electric motors
  • Active electric individual steering, camber and traction/braking on each wheel
  • Light-weight design with carbon fibre sandwitch

Functions RCV-E

  • Fully computerized drive-by-wire technology
  • All electric drive with 4 in-wheel electric motors
  • Active electric individual steering and traction/braking on each wheel
  • Light-weight design with carbon fibre sandwitch
  • 5G enables 
  • Designed for full autonomy and remote control

Numbers RCV

  • Weight: 450 kg
  • Drivetrain: 150 Nm (peak)
  • Battry: 52 V 100 Ah LiFeMnPO4
  • Range: 40 min full dynamic driving 
  • Top speed: 70 km/h
  • Steering angle: +- 25 deg
  • Camber angle: + 5 deg, - 15 deg

Numbers RCV-E

  • Weight: 800 kg
  • Drivetrain: 450 Nm (peak)
  • Battry: 72 V 100 Ah LiFeMnPO4
  • Range: 120 min full dynamic driving 
  • Top speed: 50 km/h (software limited to 30 km/h)
  • Steering angle: +- 30 deg

For more information, please contact Mikael Nybacka