Noninteracting control of a steering system

Abstract

This paper describes the modeling and control of a novel steering system which makes it possible to achieve a steer-by-wire like operation with the maintenance of the mechanical contact between the steering wheel and the steered wheels. First the derivation of the dynamical model is given where linear and nonlinear holonomic constraints are introduced by two elements of the steering system, namely by a harmonic drive and a universal joint. The flatness property of the nonlinear model is shown, but, since the controlled variables are not the linearizing outputs, we give another noninteracting control algorithm for the linearized model and show the tolerance of the closed-loop performance to nonlinearities.