Development of the electronic control unit for the rack-actuating steer-by-wire using the hardware-in-the-loop simulation system

The steer-by-wire (SBW) system in a passenger car substitutes the typical mechanical linkage between the steering wheel and the front wheel with electric wires. The control conception of the rack-actuating SBW system was proposed in this paper. Basically, the controller should compensate for a conventional steering system composed of mechanical linkages. The hardware-in-the-loop-simulation (HILS) system was developed for the electronic control unit (ECU) to control an SBW system. The HILS system is available for developing control logic before installing the ECU in a real vehicle. The prototype ECU has confirmed its suitability before applying the SBW system to the real vehicle through a number of simulations with the HILS system.