Title: An integrated mechanical/control design approach to optimisation of an electric power steering system under objective evaluation of vehicle handling and stability

Authors: Tao Sun; Francis Assadian; Pei-pei Du

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA ' Bosch HUAYU Steering System Co., Ltd, Shanghai 201821, China

Abstract: In the R&D process of electric power steering (EPS) system in the automobile industry, parameters matching between the control software and hardware parts have a remarkable influence on the vehicle handling. Nevertheless, this typical mechatronics subsystem is conventionally being addressed in a decoupled approach rather than an integrated method that leads to a comprehensive optimised system much closer to the Pareto optimal line. A new design approach of EPS is investigated by the simultaneous optimisation of integrated mechanical parameters and control parameters, compared with the individual optimisation control parameters and mechanical parameters. Objective evaluation of vehicle handling and stability is carried out in time domain and the frequency domain for evaluating the effect of optimisations. The investigation suggests that integrated optimisation of mechanical parameters and control parameters has significant positive impacts on vehicle handling and stability.

Keywords: electric power steering; EPS; multi-disciplinary optimisation; genetic algorithm; particle swarm optimisation; PSO.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2017.086472

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2017 Vol.74 No.3, pp.257 - 279

Accepted: 31 May 2017
Published online: 10 Sep 2017 *

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