A hardware-in-the loop platform for designing and testing of electric power assisted steering

Real-time simulation tools are commonly used for designing and testing of automotive embedded control systems. In addition, the Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) technique enables previous verification and validation of control strategy avoiding an expensive and time-consuming field test. For this reason, this paper shows a HIL platform for designing and testing of Electrical Power Assisted Steering Systems (EPAS). The HIL platform emulates field test conditions gathering the physical plant and real-time controller into complete integrated development environment. By using the proposed platform, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and supplier can speed up the procedure for verification and validation of automotive electrical steering assisted system. To demonstrate the effectiveness of HIL platform, a Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control strategy was particularly designed. Experimental results highlight a satisfactory outcome with the execution of test routines in a real-time simulation environment.