Control-oriented analysis of a distributed steering apparatus

The paper is concerned with a vehicle where each front wheel is equipped with a steering equipment. Aim of the paper is to analyze the behavior of the resulting driving apparatus during the steering maneuver in order to subsequently develop a suitable control system. The analysis is carried out in two stages, termed kinematic and dynamic. The kinematic analysis describes the steering maneuver when no lateral forces are exerted on the vehicle whilst the dynamic analysis accounts for them. The study has been carried out by an analytical approach and has been documented by simulation. As a case study, a minicar is considered.