SWOPPS Steer by wire Opportunities, performance and system safety

Purpose and goal

The purpose of the project was to investigate key aspects of SbW systems; haptic regulation and development methodology. The project also investigated how alternatives to a steering wheel could be designed. The overall goal of the project was to support an industrial introduction of SbW systems by contributing knowledge on how to take support of electronics and hardware in the development process and what an algorithm strategy could look like.

Expected results and effects

The project has resulted in an attempt to regulate haptics in SbW systems that can already be introduced on conventional control systems in a consistent manner. This means that a future introduction of SbW systems will be a minor step in this aspect. For the development and tuning of these algorithms, significant results have made it possible to use distributed computing and hardware in the loop methodology with greater precision than before. The project has also built up an initial understanding of how haptics need to be designed to suit the driver´s anatomy.

Planned approach and implementation

The approach is based on theories and simulations and evaluation on real hardware. For the haptic regulation through control engineering methodology then evaluated first in simulation and later in test vehicles on test track. The development methodology has been attacked in a similar approach basic theory for dynamic systems followed by extensive testing and evaluation in rig. All in all, this means that the project results are well rooted in both theory and practice and that the industrial usability is high.