A new force feedback for Steer-by-Wire vehicles via virtual vehicle concept

Creating reasonable steering feel is an underlying issue in Steer-by-Wire (SbW) vehicles especially when a lanekeeping assistance system functions along with the driver. In order for the artificial force feedback to be familiar to driver, as it is shown in this paper, it must not be built based upon the real roadwheels reaction torque simply because this torque could involve the contribution of lanekeeping controller. If this contribution is fed back to driver, they might perceive the force feedback as unnatural behavior and provoke unanticipated rushed reactions which may, in turn, destabilize the car. As opposed to current methods, that seek to estimate the real reaction torque at the roadwheels, a reference model as the virtual vehicle is employed here to produce a force feedback that corresponds closely to conventional steering systems. Not only does the new force feedback feel like a conventional system which is indeed familiar to the driver, it improves performance of lanekeeping system in comparison with current methods and actually gives the maximum performance as if there is no force feedback system. Simulations are carried out to evaluate the performance of current and proposed force feedback systems.