Steer-by-Wire System for Micro Electric Vehicle

It is intended in this study to use the in-wheel electric motors for the traction of the micro electric vehicle as the actuator for the steer-by-wire as well. Both right and left front suspensions of the front wheel drive electric vehicle have some large enough kingpin offsets in lateral direction and once the traction torques according to the steer command are applied to the both in-wheel motors in opposite direction each other, the front wheels are to be steered to control the vehicle. The experimental vehicle provided by this steering system is developed in order to prove experimentally how the simultaneous use of the motors for the traction and the steering for the steer-by-wire in the micro electric vehicle is available. The responses of the steering system and the electric vehicle to several steer inputs are investigated to find out the effects of the design parameters of the system on the steering characteristics. The results show that it is practically possible to use the traction motors as the actuator for the steer-by-wire system of the micro electric vehicle.