Virtual Prototyping of an Electric Power Steering Simulator

This paper presents a simulation tool for an electrical steering system whose aim is twofold: 1) to investigate the possibility of designing a minimum clearance mechatronic platform with sensorless control methods and 2) to evaluate assistance torque control feedback by considering technological specifications and human factor consideration. The choice has been made for a driving simulator having at least a real steering system with an electrical power steering (EPS) device and an adequate motor to reproduce the rack load force resulting from tire/road contact, as in a real driving situation. These components are gathered to form a virtual simulator platform, which serves as a basis for future realization. Our main contributions concern the vehicle's front assembly kinematics modeling and the evaluation of the load rack force resulting from tire/road interaction. In addition, a real application of the most recent virtual sensor algorithms, arising from the sliding-mode observer theory for states and unknown input estimation, is described.