Synthetic Steering Torque Feedback

Dan Williams, Ph.D., P.E.

Chief Engineer, Global Advanced Engineering TRW Commercial Steering Systems Lafayette, IN dan.williams@trw.com

Background

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ColumnDrive Installation

Reservoir

Steering Column

ColumnDrive
Power Steering Pump Intermediate Shaft

Power Steering Gear Pitman Arm

Draglink

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Conventional Steering Feel

The Bath-tub Curve
Rotary open center valve displaced by input torque on torsion bar. Relationship between input torque and assist natural consequence of flow through orifice. Torsion bar between input and output, assist urges output to follow input. Nonlinear position follower servomechanism. Low frequency nonlinear torque amplifier.
Valve Curve Comparison
150 135 120 105

Pressure (bar)

90 75 60 45 30 15 0 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Torque (N-m)

Fundamental compromise of steering systems:

For decades the bath-tub curve has been an excellent solution

Sized for actuation. Good controllability (torque feedback Tweaked for driver feedback. Actuation and feedback coupled. on-center) Low efforts (actuation away from center)
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Passenger Car EPS Control

Assist control based on bathtub curve. Other complex, nonlinear speed dependant functions allow many tuning degrees of freedom to modify assist. Torque feedback No reference signal (0 by default). Low gain on center. Effectively open-loop.

Ref: Badawy et al (1999) and Brocker (2006)

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ColumnDrive Control

Dynamic compensator provides classic high-fidelity closed torque loop such that reference signal is achieved. Reference signal calculated from steering and vehicle measurements. Full authority on-center. Torque feedback completely decoupled from actuation.

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Hysteresis of Various Control

) m N ( e u q r o t l e e h w d n a h

10 8 6 open loop (passcar) 4 2 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 -10 -800 closed loop no EPS

Dry park: Steering fully loaded axle of motionless vehicle from stop to stop.
Most demanding maneuver sizes conventional system components. Open loop EPS demonstrates same qualitative performance as conventional system with lower torque values.

-600

-400

-200 0 200 handwheel position (deg)

400

600

800

Demonstrates low frequency disturbance rejection properties of dynamic compenstor.

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On-Center Comparison

Higher stiffness is better

Conventionally compromised by low efforts. Also limited by steady state torque associated with steering input displacement bias
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Less uncertainty is better

Vertical range is friction Horizontal range is lash Unique repeatable relationship provides controllability and driver confidence.

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Synthetic Torque Command

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ColumnDrive Control

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Programmable Damping
) g e d ( n o i t i s o P EPS Damping 200 underdamped 100

l e -100 e h w d n -200 a H -300

Damping ratio tuned consistent with other vehicle dynamics.

overdamped

no eps

Damping rate varies with stiffness and speed.

-400

3 time (sec)

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Bias Rejection
) g e d ( n o i t i s o p EPS response to vehicle pull 30 20

l e 10 e h w) 0 dm N n a( -10 H 0 e u q 4 r o t 3 l e 2 e h 1 w d 0 n a H -1

handwheel offset

Tunable adaptation window. Valued feature for large, heavy commercial vehicles.

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Allows higher on-center stiffness w/o increasing steady state efforts.

fully compensated crosswind starts

20

40

60 80 time (sec)

100

120

140

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Commercial Vehicle Application

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Motorhome

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On-Center Vehicle Performance

Motor home duty cycle typical of over the road commercial vehicles. Motor homes are particularly softly sprung, many with IFS. Steering input drive line nonlinearities degrade conventional handling. High on-center stiffness and bias rejection create value.
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Field Experience

Anecdotal End User Comments: Fatigue in arms used to limit motorhome travel to 400 mi/day. With column drive, traveled 1500 mi in three days and was not fatigued. With column drive wife can share motorhome driving duties. Husband gets a break from driving, and wife enjoys the break in monotony. Column drive eliminated the need for transit bus driver to take medication at night to sleep.
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Torque vs. Angle Overlay

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Angle Overlay (active steer) Planetary gearset provides auxiliary steering displacement input. Can change ratio Can modify vehicle dynamics Most appropriate for off-center portions of duty cycle (0.2-0.6g) Good passenger car solution

% high lateral acceleration

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 on-highway P&D > 0.1g > 0.2g

Torque Overlay (closed loop control of ColumnDrive) Electric motor provides auxiliary steering torque input. Can mask input driveline nonlinearities Most appropriate for on-center portions of duty cycle (<0.2g) Good commercial vehicle solution Angle Overlay and Torque Overlay are completely complementary.
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Conclusion

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Conclusions
Commercial vehicle duty cycles are dominated by high speed lane maintenance and low speed maneuvering modes, both of which can be characterised by low lateral accelerations. ColumnDrive creates value in the high speed lane maintenance mode by increasing on-center stiffness, reducing uncertainty and eliminating torque bias ColumnDrive creates value in the low speed maneuvering mode by decreasing driver efforts and workload. High lateral acceleration applications of ColumnDrive more typical of passenger cars have not been developed or evaluated.

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TRW Automotive Inc. 2008