ABSTRACT
Steering simulator is a device used to replicate or design the steering response of a vehicle while offering the steering feedback torque for the driver. Time delay of the steering simulator is inevitable and has significant influence on the performance and stability of the system. In this paper, from the point of view of the system design, a stability criterion considering the time delay of the system is derived based on an energy-based approach. The time delay effects on the steering simulator are also quantitatively analyzed in this paper. The criterion derived in this paper can be used as a guideline on the design of steering torque feedback systems, including the maximum allowed time delay of the system, dynamic response of the servo motor, and the computational efficiency of the processor. The proposed method and the derived stability criterion are verified by both simulation and experiment.
