A NEW APPROACH FOR VEHICLE MANEUVERABILITY …€¦ · steer-by-wire mechanism using ADAMS/Chassis...

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET) Volume 8, Issue 9, September 2017, pp. 150–156, Article ID: IJMET_08_09_015

Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=8&IType=9

ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

A NEW APPROACH FOR VEHICLE

MANEUVERABILITY USING STEER BY TOUCH

TECHNOLOGY

Nandagopal N, Jerry Prashant D and Giridharan A

School of Mechanical and Building Sciences,

VIT University Chennai Campus, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT

This paper describes about the steer by touch technology. The steering wheel of a

car is replaced with a touch screen (mobile phone) and the signal is sent to a

microcontroller which actuates the steering actuator (motor). Steering control is

obtained by swiping to left or right on the touch screen. This method eliminates the

mechanical components in the car and hence reducing the weight and reducing

mechanical wear. The signal to the microcontroller is sent using wireless technology

(Bluetooth) and hence reducing wiring. Application software is used to control the

steering actuator. By using this technology the steering effort by the driver is

eliminated and also the Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) that is transmitted

from the tyres to steering column are eliminated.

Keyword: Steer by touch technology, Vehicle manoeuvrability, Steering control,

Swipe distance, Wheel rotation.

Cite this Article: Nandagopal N, Jerry Prashant D and Giridharan A, A New

Approach for Vehicle Maneuverability Using Steer by Touch Technology,

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology 8(9), 2017,

pp. 150–156.

http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=8&IType=9

1. INTRODUCTION

Touch screen technology is present in almost all our day to day commodities where

everything happens in a simple touch. By incorporating touch screen technology in

automotive would open new possibilities and efficient automotive vehicle designs. Steering

mechanism in conventional automotive comprises of various mechanical components that are

susceptible to wear. “Steer by touch” is one of the emerging techniques applied in automotive

that eliminate mechanical components used in the steering assembly. This reduces the weight

of the vehicle and eliminates the wear of mechanical components.

Steer by touch technology is the modified technique of steer by wire. Steer by touch

technology eliminates the steering effort of the driver and the Noise, Vibration, and Harshness



(NVH) that is transmitted from the tyres to steering column. Also, during the event of

accident potential harm to the driver reduces due to elimination of mechanical components. In

steer by touch technology a touch screen replaces the steering column. Steering mechanism is

achieved by swiping either from left to right or 360⁰ on the touch screen. The amount of

steering actuation can be fine-tuned as per the driver’s wish.

The evolution of automotive control systems such as fly-by-wire, brake-by-wire, steer-by-

wire, throttle-by-wire, control systems and communication architecture and feedback devices

have made the automotive more efficient and flexible. Steer by wire system

reduces/eliminates the mechanical linkage between the steering wheel and the front wheels,

and replaces them with electronic sensors, control systems and actuators. Many researchers

have carried out studies on vehicle steering system of an automobile. Researchers have

attempted to apply a real time kinematics GPS (an improved positioning system) and steer-

by-wire technology to automate the driving mechanism [1]. Authors proposed a model for

steer-by-wire mechanism using ADAMS/Chassis software and studied the steering angle of

external wheels for different wheel radius [2]. The proposed steer-by-wire technique resulted

in adjustable steering feel with realistic tire/road feedback, active steering wheel return with

adjustable wheel rate, quick and accurate road wheel angle tracking based on the driver’s

input, and variable steering ratio [3]. Authors proposed a steer-by-wire technology for simple

small steer angle characteristics [4] and authors attempted to use H∞ algorithm to improve the

existing steer-by-wire technique [5]. Authors proposed a control algorithm for improving

vehicle handling by including correction angle to steering using MATLAB Simulink software

[6]. Authors simulated the test conditions of a vehicle using MATLAB/Simulink and CarSim

software and validated it with experimental results of real vehicle [7]. Researchers have

attempted to develop a steering system using joystick. The result shows that the angle

transmission ratio with constant yaw rate which is suitable for steering wheel can’t meet the

basic requirement of joystick steering [8]. Authors proposed a steering reference steering

wheel torque map and a torque tracking algorithm to achieve the desired steering feel.

However various road conditions such as disturbances and tire-road friction are not

considered. From literature, it is observed not much work is carried out in steering by touch

technology.

In this work, a steer-by-touch technology is proposed for single swipe. A working model

is developed and validated with experimental results.

2. METHODOLOGY

The proposed working model can be applied to a four-wheeled (consider car in this case)

automobile by drawing lines on a touch pad. The touch pad can be fixed on to the dash board

of the car which acts as an interface between the driver and car steering mechanism. The

touch pad consists of a grid of coordinates. By touching any of these grids, an equivalent

pulse is sent to the microcontroller. This pulse is then evaluated by the microcontroller to

decide the direction of movement of wheels. The direction is sensed by calculating the

difference between two grids touched consecutively. The speed is found by calculating the

time difference between the touch of two consecutive grids. These data are analysed and the

wheels are rotated using the concept of steer by wire. Corresponding to the coordinates

received by the microcontroller, the steering has been controlled. In this way the car can be

controlled using a touch screen. Fig. 1 shows the typical model of steer-by-touch technology.

A New Approach for Vehicle Maneuverability Using Steer by Touch Technology


Figure 1 Schematic representation of steer-by-touch technology

3. DEVELOPMENT OF WORKING MODEL

The prototype comprises of the following components as shown in Fig.2

• Arduino microcontroller

• Relays

• Bluetooth module (HC-05)

• DC motor (steering actuator),

• Ackermann steering mechanism and

• Mobile phone as the touch screen.

Arduino is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328P, it has its simplicity in

programming and interfacing. It receives signals and processes them, and energises the relay

which controls the motor rotation. Two relays are used to control rotation of motor by

reversing the current to the motor i.e. clockwise and counter clockwise direction. Bluetooth

serial module HC-05 is used for converting serial port to Bluetooth. This Bluetooth

connection is equivalent to a serial port line connection including RXD, TXD signals. The

Microcontroller communicates with the Mobile phone by pairing through Bluetooth. For the

experiment DC motor is used as the



(a) Complete view of working model

(b) Close-up view of components used in the working model

Figure 2 Snap shot of components used in working model of steer-by-touch technology

Steering actuator; It is connected to steering gear through suitable gear ratio and thus the

wheel turns to an angle. Gesture control is application software which is widely used in

controlling the Robots, quad copter etc. This is used for our work. The application traces the

path of the swipe the user provides in the specific direction and sends them to the arduino

microcontroller via Bluetooth. It is designed in such a way that for a single swipe on the

screen (1cm), the motor is energised for 1000ms, and hence the motor rotates up to that limit.

And hence the wheels of the car turns in the required direction with the aid of a touch screen



eliminating the need of a steering wheel. The relationship between the car wheel rotation and

the linear movement on the touch screen is obtained from the following equations

�� ω� ×�� ℎ �� (1)

�� ℎ �� =��.�! "##"$

%&'#"()* +&",$ (2)

�� ℎ = �-./

�0 (3)

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Validation of proposed working model

Experiment were conducted using the parameters given below

• Pinion diameter, PD = 45mm

• Number of teeth on pinion, NP = 25

• Number of teeth on Rack gear, NR = 50

• Maximum angle the wheel can turn is 20°

• Rotational speed of motor = 200rpm (20.83 rad/sec)

Using the above equations (1), (2) and (3) the following results were obtained

• Diametral pitch = 0.6

• Pinion pitch circle diameter = 41.67 mm

• Tangential velocity = 463 mm/s or 0.436 m/s

In the experiment for one swipe on the screen, the relay coil is energised for one second.

The motor rotates for 180° ± 10°. The relationship between the swipe on touch screen and the

relay coil energising time is plotted in Fig. 3. From the graph it is found that there is a 20

milliseconds delay in processing and hence the relay coil is energised for approximately 980

milliseconds. The relationship between the energising time and angle turned by steering

actuator is given in Fig.4. From the graph it is clear that the motor turns 10° more or less than

the estimated 180°. The relationship between the turned by the steering actuator and angle

turned by wheel is given in Fig. 5. Thus by using this technology experiments were carried

out and the outcome was the wheel turned by 10° for the each swipe on the screen on left and

right equally. The experiment was conducted on static condition. Table 1 shows the results

between swipe direction and angle turned by the wheels.

Figure 3 Relation between swipe distances and relay coil energising time

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Rel

ay

co

il e

ner

gis

ing

tim

e

(ms)

Swipe distance (mm)

Ideal response

Actual response



Figure 4 Relation between coil energising time and angle turned by motor

Figure 5 Relation between angle turned by wheel and angle turned by motor

Table 1 Swipe direction and angle turned by front wheel

S.No INPUTS OUTPUTS

1 Left swipe Wheel turns 10° Left

2 Extreme left swipe Again wheel turns 10° Left

3 Right swipe Wheel turns 10° Right

4 Extreme Right swipe Again wheel turns 10° Right

5 Swipe opposite side to that of

current direction of wheel Wheel becomes straight

The limitations are that the experiment was conducted in static condition so dynamic

results have to be found out. Accurate steering as low angle for avoiding any obstacle is not

possible using this technique; hence a precise steering actuator must be used.

3. CONCLUSIONS

A novel method of steer by touch technology is proposed in this paper. The following are the

important conclusion drawn from this work

1. The experiments were carried out on static conditions. By using the Gesture control

application it is possible to control the steering of the four-wheeled automobile using

Bluetooth communication.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200An

gle

tu

rned

by

mo

tor

(deg

ree)

Coil energising time (ms)

-400

-300

-200

-100

0

100

200

300

400

-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25

An

gle

tu

rned

by

mo

tor

(deg

ree)

Angle turned by wheel (degree)

Ideal

Actual



2. For one swipe on the touch screen either in left or right, the wheel turns by 10⁰ both in

the clockwise and anti-clockwise direction.

The following are the limitations and future scope of this work. This work can be

extended for real time steering conditions (dynamic steering conditions). Also there is a need

for precise steering actuation and also the auto alignment of the wheels using position sensors

that works on closed loop control system.

REFERENCES

[1] Omae, M, Hashimoto, N, Fujioka, T. and Shimizu, H. The application of RTK-GPS and

steer-by wire technology to the automatic driving of vehicles and an evaluation of driver

behaviour, IATSS Research, 30 (2), 2006, pp. 29-38.

[2] Fernandes, M. A. and Barbosa, R. S. Studies in Vehicle Steering Systems, SAE Technical

Paper 2006-01-2658, 2006, doi: 10.4271/2006-01-2658

[3] Yao, Y. 2006. Vehicle Steer-by-Wire System Control, SAE Technical Paper 2006-01-

1175, 2006, doi: 10.4271/2006-01-1175

[4] Onoda Y, Onuma, Y., Goto T. and Sugitani, T. Design Concept and Advantages of Steer-

by-Wire System, SAE Technical Paper 2008-01-0493, 2006, doi: 10.4271/2008-01-0493

[5] Chen H, Yu, Q, Zhu L and Chen, G. Study on Steering by Wire Controller Based on

Improved H∞ algorithm, International Journal of Computer Science, 10(1) 2010,

pp.375-380.

[6] Tavoosi, V., Kazemi, R. and Hosseini, S. M. Vehicle Handling Improvement with Steer-

by-Wire System Using Hardware in the Loop Method, Journal of Applied Research and

Technology, 12, 2014, pp. 769-781.

[7] Yu, L. and Zheng, H. The Development and Verification of Hardware-in-the-loop Test-

bench of Electrically Controlled Steering System, SAE Technical Paper, 2015-01-1508,

2015, doi: 10.4271/2015-01-1508.

[8] Zheng, H., Hu, J. and Yang, S. Variable Steering Ratio Design for Vehicle Steer-by-Wire

System with Joystick, SAE Technical Paper 2016-01-0455, 2016, doi: 10.4271/2016-01-

0455.

[9] Lee J, Chang S, Kim K, Jang B, Lee, D., Lee, B. and Yi, K. Steering Wheel Torque

Control of Steer-by-Wire System for Steering Feel, SAE Technical Paper 2017-01-1567,

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[10] Dhiraj Malu, Nikhil Katare, Suraj Runwal, Saurabh Ladhe, Design Methodology for

Steering System of an ATV. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and

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[11] P. Bridjesh, Subramanyam B and Madhu S, Design and Analysis of Steering Components

for a Race Car, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)

Volume 8, Issue 6, June 2017, pp.125-129

A NEW APPROACH FOR VEHICLE MANEUVERABILITY …€¦ · steer-by-wire mechanism using ADAMS/Chassis...

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