The Design of Electrically Controlled Steering System Hardware-In-the-Loop Test Bench

Nowadays, conventional steering system cannot meet consumers' requirements as their environmental awareness increasing. Electrically controlled steering system can solve this problem well [1] [2]. Electrically controlled steering system has been not only applied widely in automobile steering technique but also becomes an important section of automobile integrated chassis control technology. It is necessary for vehicles to test their every component repeatedly before every component assembled. So a test bench becomes an essential part for vehicle products' design and improvement. The electrically controlled steering system consists of Electric Power Steering system (EPS), Active Front Steering (AFS) and Steer by Wire (SBW). The similarity among them is containing pinion-and-rack mechanical structure, so it is viable to design a test bench suitable for these three systems. This paper takes EPS as a prototype to verify the design's availability. The designed test bench is also used to detect and verify the electrically controlled steering system's performance at the same time. The steering system's performance is mainly about vehicle's stability and safety. A test bench is expected to provide techniques for electrically controlled steering system's extensive use. Combining with the steering system's working principle, the paper drafts performance test methods to verify the designed test bench able to test EPS prototype performance correctly or not. If this bench is able to test the prototype performance exactly, it is also effective to test the other electrically controlled steering system.