Projects:2017s1-185 BMW Autonomous Vehicle Project Implementation of a Steering Angle Controller on a Lab Test Bench
Abstract
Autonomous driving is now becoming a new popular technology in the vehicle industry. To achieve this goal, people need to control the vehicle movements especially the steering performance with corresponding pre-set algorithm. The main part of the steering system is an Electrical Power Steering system(EPS). EPS is a product widely used in the field of vehicle steering to save energy and create a safety, make a comfort performance with high efficiency and low power consumption.
This project focus on designing the steering unit control system of autonomous vehicles and by testing and verifying the performance and reliability to make a vehicle can steer by itself. Since the DC motor of EPS can be re-programmed in order to create different steering performance, people start to research on how to modify it to achieve the autonomous driving technology. The model and the dynamic behaviour of the EPS can be built and simulated on Matlab and Simulink hence designers can implement the simulation to analysis the impact of the steering system and find the method to handle these factors. By establishing PID controllers to adjust the outputs coming from the EPS to control the torque, speed and position of the rack of the system.
Finally, designers will test the steering performance with the help of the MicroAutoBox on the steering rig test bench of the laboratory, compare the tests results and the simulation results to adjust the parameters of the PID controllers to get a more reasonable steering model.
Keywords: Electrical Power Steering, Dynamic Behaviours, Simulation, Reliability and Stability, Self-driving System
Objects
- Development of a steering angle control
- Implementation of the EPS on the testbench
- Complete the communication with EPS using the MicroAutoBox
- Implementation of steering rack controller on the test bench
- Achieve accurate angle controlling
Aims
This project aims to construct a simulation model for the EPS and design three controllers, toque controller, speed controller and position controller for optimizing the dynamic performance of the steering system. A test bench will be implemented on a base associated with two springs on both side. This will be used to test the algorithm, verify the operations of the EPS and measure some important parameters. By completing all those steps, a primary level of autonomous vehicle steering system is developed.
Motivation
Nowadays, city traffic conditions are becoming more and more complex. Traffic jam is one of the most significant problems in the urban planning and administration. Urban constructors need to consider how to manage the vehicles running in the city area. The autonomous driving is an efficient method to control traffic. If all cars on the road can be managed by electronic system, the driving surroundings will be smooth because human mistakes can be limited with the electronic assistance.
The EPS system has been developed for more than 50 years and more and more popular owing to its special aspects. In different driving conditions, this steering system will perform in variable and adjustable working status. The assisted force and torque generated by the internal motor can be adjusted with the changing of the human driver’s operation. If the motor of EPS is able to analyses and modify the required torque and force automatically according to the surrounding driving environment, it will provide the required forces to rotate the steering rack, so it is unnecessary for the driver to act on the steering wheel which makes self-driving technology possible [1]. Many program languages can build some algorithm to control the power steering system, so after optimizing the performance of the algorithm, the automatic steering angle controller will work better on autonomous vehicles. That is what this project wants to complete.
Project Team
Team Members
Zeyu Yan
Tianhao Gu
Supervisor
Prof.Nesimi Ertugrul
Dr.Cheng Chew Lim
Robert Dollinger
