PARAMETER OPTIMIZATION OF ELECTRIC POWER STEERING INTEGRATED WITH ACTIVE FRONT STEERING FUNCTION

The dynanaic model of a novel electric power steering（EPS） system integrated with active front steer- ing function and the three-freedom steering model are built. Based on these models, the concepts and the quanti- tative expressions of road feel, sensitivity, and operation stability of the steering are introduced. Then, according to constrained optimization features of multi-variable function, a genetic algorithm is designed. Making the road feel of the steering as optimization objective, and operation stability and sensitivity of the steering as constraints, the system parameters are optimized by the genetic and the coordinate rotation algorithms. Simulation results show that the optimization of the novel EPS system by the genetic algorithm can effectively improve the road feel, thus providing a theoretical basis for the design and optimization of the novel EPS system.

Tracking Performance of Electric Power Steering System Based on the Mixed H_2/H_∞ Strategy

The tracking performance of motor current is an important factor that affects the assistance torque of electric power steering （EPS） system. Bad tracking performance will cause assistant torque delay, and make road feeling bad, and is influenced by the input steering torque and system measuring noise. However the existing methods have some shortages on system＇s robust dynamic performance and robust stability. The mixed H2/H∞ strategy for recirculating ball-type EPS system in a pure electric bus is proposed, and vehicle dynamic model of the system is established. Due to the existence of system model uncertainty, disturbance signals, sensor noises and the demand of system dynamic performance, the indexes of robust performance and road feeling for drivers are defined as the appraisal control objectives. The H∞ method is introduced to design the H∞ controller, and the H2 method is applied to optimize the H∞ controller, thus the mixed H2/H∞ controller is designed. The response of EPS system to the motor current command with amplitude of 20 A, the road disturbance with amplitude of 500 N and the sensor random noise with the amplitude of 1 A is simulated. The simulation results show that the recirculating ball-type EPS system with the mixed H2/H∞ controller can attenuate the random noises and disturbances and track the boost curve well, so the mixed H2/H∞ controller can improve the system＇s robust performance and dynamic performance. For the purpose of verifying the performance of the designed control strategy, the motor current tracking performance ground tests are conducted with step response input of the steering wheel, double-lane steering test and lemniscate steering test, respectively. The tests show that the mixed H2/H∞ controller for the recirculating ball-type EPS system of pure electric bus is feasible. The designed controller can solve the robust performance and robust stability of the system, thus improve the tracking performance of the EPS system and provide satisfied road feeling for the drivers.

H∞ control of novel active steering integrated with electric power steering function

Based on the traditional active steering system, a novel active steering system integrated with electric power steering function was introduced, which can achieve the functions of both active steering and electric power steering. In view of the interference from road random signal and sensor noise in the novel active steering system, the H∞ control model of the novel active steering system was built. With satisfying steering feel, good robust performance and steering stability being the control objectives, the H∞ controller for the novel active front steering (AFS) system was designed. The simulation results show that the novel AFS system with H∞ control strategy can attenuate the road interference quickly, and there is no resonance peak in the bode diagram. It can make the driver obtain more useful information in the low frequency range, and attenuate the road interference better in the high frequency range, thus the driver can get more satisfying road feeling. Therefore, the designed H∞ controller can synthesize the advantages of both robust performance and robust stability, and has certain contribution to the design of novel AFS system.

Integration optimization of novel electric power steering system based on quality engineering theory

The dynamic model of a novel electric power steering （EPS） system integrated with active front steering function （the novel EPS system） is built. The concepts and quantitative expressions of the steering road feel, steering sensibility, and steering operation stability are introduced. Based on quality engineering theory, the optimization algorithm is proposed by integrating the Monte Carlo descriptive sampling, elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm （NSGA-II） and 6-sigma design method. With the steering road feel and the steering portability as optimization targets, the system parameters are optimized by the proposed optimization algorithm. The simulation results show that the system optimized based on quality engineering theory can improve the steering road feel, guarantee steering stability and steering portability and thus provide a theoretical basis for the design and optimization of the novel electric power steering system.

Controller Design for Electric Power Steering System Using T-S Fuzzy Model Approach

Pressure ripples in electric power steering （EPS） systems can be caused by the phase lag between the driver s steering torque and steer angle, the nonlinear frictions, and the disturbances from road and sensor noise especially during high-frequency maneuvers. This paper investigates the use of the robust fuzzy control method for actively reducing pressure ripples for EPS systems. Remarkable progress on steering maneuverability is achieved. The EPS dynamics is described with an eight-order nonlinear state-space model and approximated by a Takagi-Sugeno （T-S） fuzzy model with time-varying delays and external disturbances. A stabilization approach is then presented for nonlinear time-delay systems through fuzzy state feedback controller in parallel distributed compensation （PDC） structure. The closed-loop stability conditions of EPS system with the fuzzy controller are parameterized in terms of the linear matrix inequality （LMI） problem. Simulations and experiments using the proposed robust fuzzy controller and traditional PID controller have been carried out for EPS systems. Both the simulation and experiment results show that the proposed fuzzy controller can reduce the torque ripples and allow us to have a good steering feeling and stable driving.

Dynamics of electromagnetic slip coupling for hydraulic power steering application and its energy-saving characteristics

To improve high-speed road feel and enhance energetic efficiency of hydraulic power steering(HPS) system in heavy-duty vehicles, an electromagnetic slip coupling(ESC) was applied to the steering system, which regulated discharge flow of steering pump to realize variable assist characteristic as well as uniquely transfer on-demand power from engine to steering pump. The model of ESC was established and the dynamic characteristics of ESC were presented by the way of simulation and experiment. Upon the layout of the assist characteristics, output torque of ESC was derived. Based on the ESC model, the output torque characteristics of ESC were simulated under steering situation and straight driving situation, respectively. The consistency of simulated ESC output torque and the one deduced from assist characteristics verifies the correctness of the ESC dynamic model. To illustrate energy saving characteristics of ESC-HPS, energy consumption comparison of ESC-HPS and conventional HPS was carried out qualitatively and quantitatively. It follows that the energy consumption of ESC-HPS decreases by 50% compared with that of HPS.

Dynamic characteristics of hydraulic power steering system with accumulator in load-haul-dump vehicle

Using hydraulic power steering system of model EIMCO 922 load-haul-dump vehicle as a simulation example, the dynamic characteristics of hydraulic power steering system in load-haul-dump vehicle were simulated and discussed with SIMULINK software and hydraulic control theory. The results show that the dynamic characteristics of hydraulic power steering system are improved obviously by using bladder accumulator, the hydraulic power steering system of model EIMCO 922 load-haul-dump vehicle generates vibration at the initial stage under the normal steering condition of pulse input, and its static response time is 0.25 s shorter than that without bladder accumulator. Under the normal steering working condition, the capacity of steering accumulator for absorbing pulse is directly proportional to the cross section area of connecting pipeline, and inversely proportional to the length of connecting pipeline. At the same time, the precharge pressure of nitrogen in steering accumulator should be 60%80% of the rated minimum working pressure of hydraulic power steering system. Under the abnormal steering working condition, the steering cylinder piston may obtain higher motion velocity, and the dynamic response velocity of hydraulic power steering system can be increased by reducing the pressure drop of hydraulic pipelines between the accumulator and steering cylinder and by increasing the rated pressure of hydraulic power steering system, but the dynamic characteristics of hydraulic power steering system in load-haul-dump vehicle have nothing to do with the precharge pressure of nitrogen in steering accumulator.

Performance optimization of electric power steering based on multi-objective genetic algorithm

The vehicle model of the recirculating ball-type electric power steering (EPS) system for the pure electric bus was built. According to the features of constrained optimization for multi-variable function, a multi-objective genetic algorithm (GA) was designed. Based on the model of system, the quantitative formula of the road feel, sensitivity, and operation stability of the steering were induced. Considering the road feel and sensitivity of steering as optimization objectives, and the operation stability of steering as constraint, the multi-objective GA was proposed and the system parameters were optimized. The simulation results show that the system optimized by multi-objective genetic algorithm has better road feel, steering sensibility and steering stability. The energy of steering road feel after optimization is 1.44 times larger than the one before optimization, and the energy of portability after optimization is 0.4 times larger than the one before optimization. The ground test was conducted in order to verify the feasibility of simulation results, and it is shown that the pure electric bus equipped with the recirculating ball-type EPS system can provide better road feel and better steering portability for the drivers, thus the optimization methods can provide a theoretical basis for the design and optimization of the recirculating ball-type EPS system.

Optimal design and applicability of electric power steering system for automotive platform

The ongoing need for better fuel economy and lower exhaust pollution of vehicles has increased the employment of electric power steering(EPS)in automotives.Optimal design of EPS for a product family reduces the development and fabrication costs significantly.In this paper,the TOPSIS method along with the NSGA-Ⅱis employed to find an optimum family of EPS for an automotive platform.A multi-objective optimization problem is defined considering road feel,steering portability,RMS of Ackerman error,and product family penalty function(PFPF)as the conflicting objective functions.The results for the single objective optimization problems and the ones for the multi-objective optimization problem,as well as two suggested trade-off design points are presented,compared and discussed.For the two suggested points,performance at one objective function is deteriorated by about 1%,while the commonality is increased by 20%–40%,which shows the effectiveness of the proposed method in first finding the non-dominated design points and then selecting the trade-off among the obtained points.The results indicate that the obtained trade-off points have superior performance within the product family with maximum number of common parts.

Precise Compound Control of Loading Force for Electric Load Simulator of Electric Power Steering Test Bench

Electric load simulator(ELS) systems are employed for electric power steering(EPS) test benches to load rack force by precise control. Precise ELS control is strongly influenced by nonlinear factors. When the steering motor rapidly rotates, extra force is directly superimposed on the original static loading error, which becomes one of the main sources of the final error. It is key to achieve ELS precise loading control for the entire EPS test bench. Therefore, a three-part compound control algorithm is proposed to improve the loading accuracy. First, a fuzzy proportional–integral plus feedforward controller with force feedback is presented. Second, a friction compensation algorithm is established to reduce the influence of friction. Then, the relationships between each quantity and the extra force are analyzed when the steering motor rapidly rotates, and a net torque feedforward compensation algorithm is proposed to eliminate the extra force. The compound control algorithm was verified through simulations and experiments. The results show that the tracking performance of the compound control algorithm satisfies the demands of engineering practice, and the extra force in the ELS system can be suppressed by the net torque corresponding to the actuator’s acceleration.

Model development and parameter investigation of a column-type electric power steering system

In this paper, the performance of a column-type electric power steering （EPS） system and vehicle has been studied and a detailed mathematical model for the system has been established. Based on the mathematic model of the optimization design for steering feel, the parameters of the EPS system and vehicle on steering performance have been investigated. Moreover, the effects of the parameters on system stability have been analyzed and compared by the method of absolute sensitivity and the results are given in the end.

Control strategy of a novel electric power steering system integrated with active front steering function

A novel electric power steering system(EPS) integrated with active front steering(AFS) is developed.It has functions of both AFS system and EPS system with two actuator units:the AFS actuator unit and the EPS actuator unit.The AFS actuator unit controls the displacement transfer behavior of the steering system,and improves the handling stability under adverse road conditions by varying the steering ratio directly related to the speed and road conditions.The EPS actuator unit controls the force transfer behavior of the steering system,and improves the steering portability and road feel of the vehicle.Based on a dynamic model,the mixed H2/H∞ control strategy of the EPS actuator and the active steering intervention control strategy of the AFS actuator are designed.The simulation indicates that the novel EPS system with the designed control strategies has obvious advantages in vehicle handling stability and the driver's road feel over the traditional EPS system,and extends the vehicle's steering performance.

Study on Characteristic of Electric Power Assist Steering System

A pinion-type electric power steering (EPS) equipped on a sedan is reached in this paper. A three-freedom dynamic model of this system is created. The variables affecting assist character is analyzed. The formulas of simpled steering resistance force and the relationship between assist gain and vehicle speed are presented for the first time. Assist character is found based on the parameters of a sedan at last. This assist character is fit for the control rule of the EPS system through analyzing this character. The assist character figure offers reference for system design and control. Furthermore, this research method has generality for assist character of different kinds of vehicles.

Electrical power assisted steering for EVs and HEVs

Electrical power assisted steering (EPAS) is one of the key components, especially for electrical vehicle. It has attracted much attention for their advantages with respect to improved fuel economy and has been widely adopted as automotive power-steering equipment in recent years. EPS (electrical power steering) controllers contain MCU (microprocessor control unit) to implement the complex control algorithms. EPS control strategy development is the core technology of the whole system. To achieve the better performance of driving, both mechanical structures and electrical structures are totally designed as a whole. Model-based development is recommended to software design. There are several trends about EPS’ future, such as high power EPS development, high voltage EPS development and steering-by-wire technology.

Multi-objective optimization of active steering system with force and displacement coupled control

A novel active steering system with force and displacement coupled control(the novel AFS system) was introduced,which has functions of both the active steering and electric power steering.Based on the model of the novel AFS system and the vehicle three-degree of freedom system,the concept and quantitative formulas of the novel AFS system steering performance were proposed.The steering road feel and steering portability were set as the optimizing targets with the steering stability and steering portability as the constraint conditions.According to the features of constrained optimization of multi-variable function,a multi-variable genetic algorithm for the system parameter optimization was designed.The simulation results show that based on parametric optimization of the multi-objective genetic algorithm,the novel AFS system can improve the steering road feel,steering portability and steering stability,thus the optimization method can provide a theoretical basis for the design and optimization of the novel AFS system.

A FAST SEARCH METHOD OF STEERED RESPONSE POWER WITH SMALL-APERTURE MICROPHONE ARRAY FOR SOUND SOURCE LOCALIZATION

The Steered Response Power(SRP)method works well for sound source localization in noisy and reverberant environment.However,the large computation complexity limits its practical application.In this paper,a fast SRP search method is proposed to reduce the computational complexity using small-aperture microphone array.The proposed method inspired by the SRP spatial spectrum includes two steps:first,the proposed method estimates the azimuth of the sound source roughly and determines whether the sound source is in far field or near field;then,different fine searching operations are performed according to the sound source being in far field or near field.Experiments both in simulation environments and real environments have been performed to compare the localization accuracy and computation complexity of the proposed method with those of the conventional SRP-PHAT algorithm.The results show that,the proposed method has a comparative accuracy with the conventional SRP algorithm,and achieves a reduction of 93.62%in computation complexity compared to the conventional SRP algorithm.

Influence of Buffering Pressure Characteristics on Shift Clutch Engagement Process

The dynamic math model of shift clutch in engagement process was determined on the basis of hydraulic buffering valve and shift clutch of a power shift steering transmission. The influence of buffering pressure characteristic on shift clutch engagement process was analyzed. The study results could be used to the characteristics match of the shift clutch with the hydraulic system of the high speed tracked vehicle power shift steering transmission and the performance prediction.

Feed-Forward Active Noise Control System Using Microphone Array

Feedforward active noise control(ANC)system are widely used to reduce the wide-band noise in different application.In feedforward ANC systems,when the noise source is unknown,the misplacement of the reference microphone may violate the causality constraint.We present a performance analysis of the feedforward ANC system under a noncausal condition.The ANC system performance degrades when the degree of noncausality increases.This research applies the microphone array technique to feedforward ANC systems to solve the unknown noise source problem.The generalized cross-correlation(GCC)and steering response power(SRP)methods based on microphone array are used to estimate the noise source location.Then,the ANC system selects the proper reference microphone for a noise control algorithm.The simulation and experiment results show that the SRP method can estimate the noise source direction with 84%accuracy.The proposed microphone array integrated ANC system can dramatically improve the system performance.

Accelerated steered response power method for sound source localization via clustering search

The steered response power-phase transform (SRP-PHAT) sound source localization algorithm is robust in a real environment. However, the large computation complexity limits the practical application of SRP-PHAT. For a microphone array, each location corresponds to a set of time differences of arrival (TDOAs), and this paper collects them into a TDOA vector. Since the TDOA vectors in the adjacent regions are similar, we present a fast algorithm based on clustering search to reduce the computation complexity of SRP-PHAT. In the training stage, the K-means or Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique (ISODATA) clustering algorithm is used to find the centroid in each cluster with similar TDOA vectors. In the procedure of sound localization, the optimal cluster is found by comparing the steered response powers (SRPs) of all centroids. The SRPs of all candidate locations in the optimal cluster are compared to localize the sound source. Experiments both in simulation environments and real environments have been performed to compare the localization accuracy and computational load of the proposed method with those of the conventional SRP-PHAT algorithm. The results show that the proposed method is able to reduce the computational load drastically and maintains almost the same localization accuracy and robustness as those of the conventional SRP-PHAT algorithm. The difference in localization performance brought by different clustering algorithms used in the training stage is trivial.

Mixed H_2/H_∞ road feel control of EPS based on genetic algorithm

In view of the existence of uncertainties such as system model and disturbance signal in the electric power steering （EPS） system, and the demand for system dynamic performance, the mixed H2/H∞, controller based on genetic algorithm is proposed. In order to obtain satisfactory steering feel, robust performance and steering stability, models of EPS system and a two-degree- of-freedom car are set up, then the state space model and the augmented matrixes are built. The H∞, method is introduced to minimize the effect of disturbances on the outputs, and the H2 method is applied to optimizing the system performance based on genetic algorithm. The simulation results show that the modified mixed H2/H∞ controller, which synthesizes the advantage of H2 control and Ha, control, has better robust performance and robust stability. The designed controller can attenuate the noises and disturbances caused by road random motivation, torque sensor measurement and model parameter uncertainty, enabling the driver to obtain satisfactory road feel.