This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
1. Introduction
The electric power steering (EPS) system is a steering system supported by motors, which offers drivers lighter steering experience. Comparing with hydraulic power steering (HPS), EPS has many advantages including better fuel efficiency, smaller size, and the feeling of steering easily, in addition, the capability to combine other electric control systems in the car with itself, so most cars are equipped with an EPS system [1]. When the driver turns the steering wheel, the torque sensor detects the steering angle and torque and sends a voltage signal to the electronic control unit. The electronic control unit sends instructions to the motor control unit based on the torque voltage signal, direction of rotation, and speed signal detected by the torque sensor, so that the motor outputs the steering booster torque of the corresponding size and torque.
Although the EPS system has many advantages, designing a suitable controller for EPS is a challenging problem for many reasons. Torque map is the main component of the EPS controller. The torque map is a gain function between the measured torque from the steering wheel and the assist torque provided by the motor. It determines how much steering torque the motor assists. The shape of the torque map determines the driver’s driving feeling [2]. Generally, since the torque required to steer is maximum when parking, the slope of the torque map is steepest at zero speed, and then decreases as the speed increases. When driving at low speed, the high gain of the controller and the nonlinearity of the torque map cause the instability and vibration [3–5]. Due to the dynamic uncertainty (unmodeled dynamic characteristics) and parameter uncertainty of the EPS system, the controller must be robust. Even for the same type of vehicle, the system parameters of each vehicle will be different, so the tuning of the parameters also faces huge challenges [6]. In addition, the steering system is in an extremely sensitive state to interact with the driver’s hand, so a good controller design should eliminate unwanted vibrations.
There are many researches on the EPS system controller and various EPS controllers are proposed to ensure the system stability. In [7], the authors analyze the stability conditions based on the EPS model and use a structured structure compensator to realize the system stability and torque vibration minimization. In [8], the authors use frequency weighted damping compensator to improve the phase margin of the system, improving the stability of the system, but the phase margin is limited. In [9], the authors use an integral sliding mode controller to generate the power torque so that the system can achieve stability and improve the damping characteristics of the system. In [10], the authors analyze the stability of a system with approximately linear torque diagrams and nonlinear torque diagrams, propose criteria for designing a stable compensator, and give lead-lag compensators of different orders. The lead-lag compensator with different parameters is applied together with the torque map for vehicle experiments.
However, the previous control design has some limitations. Firstly, most researches approximate the nonlinear torque diagram as a simple linear gain without analyzing the influence of nonlinearity on the stability of the system. In addition, the main concern of these designs is whether the control system is stable or not, without considering the robustness and control performance comprehensively.
Aiming at the stability and comprehensive performance of the EPS system, this paper adopts a structured
2. EPS System Model
According to the different positions of power supply, the EPS system can be divided into three types: steering column type, pinion type, and rack type. In this paper, we will take the column EPS system (C-EPS) as an example. It is mainly composed of four parts: steering wheel, column, motor, and rack. The steering wheel and steering column are connected by a torque sensor including an elastic torsion bar, and the motor and rack are respectively connected to the steering column by a reduction mechanism (in this case, it is a worm reduction mechanism) and a pinion. The dynamic model is shown in Figure 1, and the meaning of each variable and parameter throughout this paper is shown in the figures and is defined in Table 1.
[figure omitted; refer to PDF]Table 1
Parameters and variables.
Notation | Description |
J1 | Moment of inertia of steering wheel |
C1 | Damping coefficient of the steering wheel |
K | Torsional stiffness of torque sensor |
Jc | Moment of inertia of column |
Cc | Damping coefficient of column |
Jm | Moment of inertia of motor |
Cm | Damping coefficient of motor |
θ1 | Steering wheel angle |
θ2 | Column angle |
θm | Motor angle |
τh | Driver torque |
τm | Motor torque |
τpinion | Pinon torque |
τgear | Gear torque |
N | Gear ratio |
Mr | Mass of rack |
Cr | Damping coefficient of rack |
xr | Rack displacement |
rp | Pinion radius |
Fload | Load force of rack from tire |
The equations of motion of each part of the system are listed as in the following equations:
The gear ratio of rack, pinion, and worm gear are shown in the following equation:
Equations (2)–(4) can be simplified to a lumped mass equation as shown in the following equation:
The system block diagram of the EPS system is shown in Figure 2, which describes the relationship between the system’s external input (steering wheel torque and equivalent load torque) and the system state variables (steering wheel angle and steering column angle).
[figure omitted; refer to PDF]As shown in Figure 2, h is the EPS controller consisting of a torque map and a compensation controller.
The transfer function from steering wheel torque to output angle
The transfer function from the steering column moment to output angle
The mathematical model of the engine in the system can be expressed as low-pass filter with a cutoff frequency of
The parameters adopted for the EPS system in literature [7] are shown in Table 2:
Table 2
Value of the parameters of EPS.
Parameters | Value |
K | 143.24 |
J1 (kg·m2) | 0.044 |
C1 (Nm·s/rad) | 0.25 |
J2 (kg·m2) | 0.11 |
C2 (Nm·s/rad) | 1.35 |
ωm (rad/s) | 200π |
3. Structured
In this case, the control design of the EPS system involves multiple control objectives, so the design of the structured
A complete structured
3.1. Controller Structure
The control structure of the system is shown in Figure 3. In the EPS system, the driver inputs the steering angle signal
The torque map has a dead zone below
EPS controllers also require some type of stability compensator due to the instability of the system caused by the high gain and nonlinearity of the torque map at low speeds. We use a structured
3.2. Stability Analysis and Weight Function Choice
By the analysis, the performance requirements of the control design are as follows: stability margin, robust stability, and system bandwidth.
3.2.1. Stability Margin
From the system models (1)–(12), the phase margin is only
In formula (15),
3.2.2. Bandwidth Requirement
Except for the stability, it is also necessary to consider the appropriate bandwidth of the system.
To limit the bandwidth of the system, the weighted function
3.2.3. Robust Stability
Considering the uncertainty of the power moment ratio
The control structure diagram of the system according to equation (18) is shown in Figure 4.
According to the principle of minimum gain, the robust stability of the system needs to satisfy the condition of the following equation:
Therefore, the second performance requirement of the system is robust stability.
For the
At this time, the adjustable parameters obtained are the optimal parameters of the system controller.
When the optimal parameters in the structured
3.3. Controller Design Results
In the parking state which means h =
According to the system performance requirements and stability analysis, we designed the structured compensator of different orders as the controller in turn. As shown in (14), when n = 2, the controller is a second-order compensator (controller 1); when n = 3, the controller is a third-order compensator (controller 2); when n = 4, the controller is a fourth-order compensator (controller 3). The parameters used in structured
Table 3
Controllers design parameter.
Controller | 1 | 2 | 3 |
a1 | 537 | 1039 | 1019 |
b1 | 8 | 5.39 | 2.22 |
a2 | 2 | 403 | 0.5 |
b2 | 40.2 | 127 | 146 |
a3 | — | 2 | 18.3 |
b3 | — | 135 | 168 |
a4 | — | — | 513 |
b4 | — | — | 14.6 |
γ | 1.4340 | 1.0768 | 0.9621 |
The symbol “—” indicates that the value is the default value.
Under normal circumstances, we assume that the system can achieve good performance when the γ value is less than 1. As the controller order increases, the γ value we get will become smaller and smaller. The value of γ of the second-order controller still exceeds 1, and the value of γ is already less than 1 when the order of controller is increased to the third order. Although the γ value is still decreasing when the order increased to the fourth order, the degree of reduction is not obvious. Therefore, we think it is not necessary to increase the controller order, so we have only designed controllers with 2–4 orders.
4. Simulation Analysis
The simulation environment is built using Simulink. It consists of steering machinery, controller, motor, and road disturbances. In the parking state, the road disturbance is shown in the following equation:
In the driving state, the road disturbance is proportional to the steering angle as in the following equation:
In the following, we will apply the compensation controllers of different orders (2nd, 3rd, 4th order) obtained previously to simulate the EPS system. We will compare and analyze the performance of the system in terms of stability margin, bandwidth, and robust stability under the action of three controllers, similar to designing a controller.
4.1. Simulation Analysis of Stability Margin
Under the action of different structured
[figures omitted; refer to PDF]
4.2. Simulation Analysis of Bandwidth
Figure 7 shows the Bode diagram under the action of the controller (1, 2, 3), where the full line is the Bode graph of
[figures omitted; refer to PDF]
The corresponding stability margins are shown in Table 4. For the improvement of the phase margin, the effects of controllers 2 and 3 are almost similar, and the phase angle margin of the system is greatly increased compared to the controller 1. There is no obvious difference between the three controllers for increasing the amplitude margin. As the structured controller order and phase angle margin increase, we can see that the sheer frequency of the system is continuously decreasing.
Table 4
Condition parameters of the controller.
Controller | 1 | 2 | 3 |
PM | 55.3° | 123° | 112° |
GM | 11.5° | 16.9 dB | 21.8 dB |
Cut frequency | 310° | 192 rad | 155 rad |
4.3. Simulation Analysis of Robust Stability
In order to verify the robustness of the designed controllers, the perturbation parameter is given to
[figures omitted; refer to PDF]
Obviously, all control designs have good robustness and can effectively suppress the oscillations generated by the system. The oscillation amplitude of the system is limited within the
Based on the analysis of the simulation results of the stability margin, bandwidth, and robust stability, the three controllers designed with different orders (2nd–4th order) can satisfy the performance requirements. It is undeniable that with the increase of the controller order, we can conclude that the phase margin, the bandwidth, and the robust stability of the system have improved significantly. Controller 2 (third-order) has performed very well in all aspects, and controller 3 (fourth-order) is even better in terms of robust stability. Moreover, controllers 2 and 3 are achievable in practical production applications and have engineering application value while meeting the system performance requirements.
5. Conclusion
The low stability margin of the EPS system and the perturbation of parameters in the torque map will cause control problems such as robustness and bandwidth requirements. Based on the
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61790562, 61861007 and 61640014), the Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Foundation (QianHe [2020]1Y273 and [2020]1Y266), Industrial Project of Guizhou Province (QiankeheZhicheng [2019]2152), Postgraduate Case Library (KCALK201708), and Important Subject of Guizhou Province (QianxueweiHe ZDXK[2015]8).
[1] X. Chen, T. Yang, X. Chen, K. Zhou, "A generic model-based advanced control of electric power-assisted steering systems," IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 16 no. 6, pp. 1289-1300, DOI: 10.1109/tcst.2008.921805, 2008.
[2] M. H. Lee, S. Ki Ha, J. Y. Choi, K. S. Yoon, "Improvement of the steering feel of an electric power steering system by torque map modification," Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 19 no. 3, pp. 792-801, DOI: 10.1007/bf02916127, 2005.
[3] J. Na, B. Jing, Y. Huang, G. Gao, C. Zhang, "Unknown system dynamics estimator for motion control of nonlinear robotic systems," IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 67 no. 5, pp. 3850-3859, DOI: 10.1109/tie.2019.2920604, 2020.
[4] J. Zhang, G. Xiong, K. Meng, P. Yu, G. Yao, Z. Dong, "An improved probabilistic load flow simulation method considering correlated stochastic variables," International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, vol. 111, pp. 260-268, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijepes.2019.04.007, 2019.
[5] A. Marouf, M. Djemai, C. Sentouh, P. Pudlo, "A new control strategy of an electric-power-assisted steering system," IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 61 no. 8, pp. 3574-3589, DOI: 10.1109/tvt.2012.2209689, 2012.
[6] A. T. Zaremba, M. K. Liubakka, R. M. Stuntz, "Control and steering feel issues the design of an electric power steering system," Proceedings of the 1998 American Control Conference, vol. 1, pp. 36-40, .
[7] M. Kurishige, O. Nishihara, H. Kumamoto, "A new control strategy to reduce steering torque without perceptible vibration for vehicles equipped with electric power steering," Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, vol. 132 no. 5,DOI: 10.1115/1.4001838, 2010.
[8] A. Marouf, C. Sentouh, M. Djemai, P. Pudlo, "Control of electric power assisted steering system using sliding mode control," Proceedings of the 14th International IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), vol. 10, pp. 107-112, .
[9] D. Lee, K. Kyung-Soo, S. Kim, "Controller design of an electric power steering system," IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 10 no. 1109, 2017.
[10] R. Chabaan, L. Y. Wang, "Control of electrical power assist systems: H ∞ design, torque estimation and structural stability," JSAE Review, vol. 22 no. 4, pp. 435-444, DOI: 10.1016/s0389-4304(01)00126-6, 2001.
[11] P. Gahinet, P. Apkarian, "Frequency-domain tuning of fixed-structure control systems," pp. 178-183, .
[12] P. Apkarian, D. Noll, "Structured H -infinity control of infinite dimensional systems," International Journal of Robust & Nonlinear Control, vol. 1, 2017.
[13] G. X. Wang, Z. He, Applied H ∞ Control, 2010.
[14] A.-p. Pang, Z. He, M.-h. Zhao, G.-x. Wang, Q.-m. Wu, Z.-t. Li, "Sum of squares approach for nonlinear H ∞ control," Complexity, vol. 2018,DOI: 10.1155/2018/8325609, 2018.
[15] P. Apkarian, "Tuning controllers against multiple design requirements," pp. 3888-3893, .
[16] P. Apkarian, M. N. Dao, D. Noll, "Parametric robust structured control design," IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 60 no. 7, pp. 1857-1869, DOI: 10.1109/tac.2015.2396644, 2015.
[17] G. F. Franklin, J. D. Powell, A. Emami-Naeini, Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems, 2010.
[18] J. Na, Y. Huang, X. Wu, S.-F. Su, G. Li, "Adaptive finite-time fuzzy control of nonlinear active suspension systems with input delay," IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, vol. 50 no. 6, pp. 2639-2650, DOI: 10.1109/tcyb.2019.2894724, 2020.
[19] P. Apkarian, D. Noll, "Nonsmooth optimization for multidisk H ∞ synthesis," European Journal of Control, vol. 12 no. 3, pp. 229-244, DOI: 10.3166/ejc.12.229-244, 2006.
[20] F. Meng, X. A. Pang, X. C. Dong, C. Han, X. Sha, "H ∞ optimal performance design of an unstable plant under bode integral constraint," Complexity, vol. 2018,DOI: 10.1155/2018/4942906, 2018.
[21] P. Gahinet, P. Apkarian, "Structured H ∞ synthesis in MATLAB," IFAC Proceedings Volumes, vol. 44 no. 1, pp. 1435-1440, DOI: 10.3182/20110828-6-it-1002.00708, 2011.
[22] R. S. D. S. D. Aguiar, P. Apkarian, D. Noll, "Structured robust control against mixed uncertainty," IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 99, 2017.
[23] J. Zhang, L. Fan, Y. Zhang, "A probabilistic assessment method for voltage stability considering large scale correlated stochastic variables," IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 5407-5415, DOI: 10.1109/access.2019.2963280, 2020.
[24] P. Gahinet, P. Apkarian, "Decentralized and fixed-structure H ∞ control in MATLAB," Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and European Control Conference, pp. 8205-8210, .
You have requested "on-the-fly" machine translation of selected content from our databases. This functionality is provided solely for your convenience and is in no way intended to replace human translation. Show full disclaimer
Neither ProQuest nor its licensors make any representations or warranties with respect to the translations. The translations are automatically generated "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" and are not retained in our systems. PROQUEST AND ITS LICENSORS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES FOR AVAILABILITY, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, NON-INFRINGMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Your use of the translations is subject to all use restrictions contained in your Electronic Products License Agreement and by using the translation functionality you agree to forgo any and all claims against ProQuest or its licensors for your use of the translation functionality and any output derived there from. Hide full disclaimer
Copyright © 2020 Hongbo Zhou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Abstract
Electric power steering (EPS) systems are prone to oscillations because of a very small phase angle margin, so a stable controller is required to increase the stability margin. In addition, the EPS system has parameter disturbances in the gain of the torque map under different conditions, which requires a certain degree of robustness in the control design. This paper synthesizes the multidimensional performance requirements considering the stability margin, robustness, and bandwidth of the system to form an
You have requested "on-the-fly" machine translation of selected content from our databases. This functionality is provided solely for your convenience and is in no way intended to replace human translation. Show full disclaimer
Neither ProQuest nor its licensors make any representations or warranties with respect to the translations. The translations are automatically generated "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" and are not retained in our systems. PROQUEST AND ITS LICENSORS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES FOR AVAILABILITY, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, NON-INFRINGMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Your use of the translations is subject to all use restrictions contained in your Electronic Products License Agreement and by using the translation functionality you agree to forgo any and all claims against ProQuest or its licensors for your use of the translation functionality and any output derived there from. Hide full disclaimer