X-by-Wire Park Assistance for electric city cars

An innovative semi-automatic X-by-Wire Park Assistance system has been designed by Continental Automotive France, integrated in a “TH!NK” City EV democar for the European funded project POLLUX. This system is based on a handy joystick-driven actuation, able to control simultaneously steering, gear and traction engine during parking maneuvers in a semi-automatic way. Successive turnings front and rear are automatically programmed, so that the driver doesn´t need to actuate several times on pedal, gear selector and steering wheel during the maneuvers. The Cartesian XY position of the joystick defines a `vector´ control, used to program and adjust steering direction, speed and amplitudes of the vehicle movements with a high accuracy during the maneuvers for parking, facilitated by the fast, secure and accurate controllability of electric type motors. A description is given of the main principles, of the fast prototyping system integrated into the electrical democar, and finally of some of the results.