Empirical Modeling of Steering System for Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

-To design an automatic steering controller with high performance for autonomous vehicle, it is necessary to have a precise model of the lateral dynamics with respect to the steering command input. This paper presents an empirical modeling of the steering system for an autonomous vehicle. The steering system here is represented by three individual transfer function models: a steering wheel actuator model from the steering command input to the steering angle of the shaft, a dynamic model between the steering angle and the yaw rate of the vehicle, and a dynamic model between the steering command and the lateral deviation of vehicle. These models are identified using frequency response data. Experiments were performed using a real vehicle. It is shown that the resulting identified models have been well fitted to the experimental data.