A Real Time Re-Configurable Steering Simulator for System Design Studies

The automotive steering system plays an important role in determining the behavioral dynamics of the operator/vehicle interface. The system´s primary function is to transmit the driver commanded steering wheel angle to the road wheels; The secondary function is to provide tire/road interface information back to the driver. The automotive chassis engineer needs a design tool to evaluate the effect of steering parameters on overall vehicle lateral behavior. In this paper, a real time steering simulator will be presented to emulate the behavior of automotive steering systems. The re-configurable steer- by-wire simulator allows for the emulation of steering systems ranging from hydraulic, electric and steer-by- wire in passenger, light duty, and commercial vehicles for pre-production and production models. To validate the simulator´s functionality, a case study has been performed with numerical and experimental data. Comparisons between the simulator results and field data demonstrate a high level of correspondence. The re-configurable simulator evaluation tool represents a contribution to the field of automotive design.