Testing Steer-by-Wire Controllers for Off-Highway Vehicles by Hardware-in-the-Loop Experiments

The control laws and the hardware architecture for the implementation of a steer-by-wire system for off-highway vehicles are proposed. This paper describes how the hardware-independent control laws for the steer-by-wire actuators have been obtained, it explains the motivations for the choice of the force feedback actuator and of the steering rod electro-hydraulic actuator and finally it presents some hardware-in-the-loop simulation results that test the electro-hydraulic rod actuator and the electronic control unit dedicated to the steering rod.