A New Steering Wheel Returnability Control Strategy for On-Center Handling Performance

In this paper, we suggest a new steering wheel returnability control strategy for EPS(Electric Power Steering) system to improve on-center handling performance. To improve steering wheel returnability for on-center handling performance, we developed a new control strategy based on estimation of alignment torque generated by tire and road surface. The returnability control algorithm only uses estimated values of the slip angle and the lateral acceleration that can be easily computed from sensor signals commonly available in passenger vehicles. The proposed algorithm was coded with Simulink, and it was cosimulated with the CarSim vehicle model. The performance of the proposed algorithm was compared with that of the conventional algorithm and it demonstrated improvement in both returnability and on-center handling performance.