DEVELOPMENT OF FOUR WHEEL STEERING SYSTEM FOR RC VEHICLE

MOHD HANIF BIN MD YUSUF

This report is submitted to Faculty of Mechanical Engineering as partial

requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Automotive)

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka

MAY 2009
 ii

COMFORMATION

I admit that have read this work and in my opinion this work was adequate from
scope aspect and quality to award in purpose Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering
(Automotive)

Signature :………………………………
st
1 Supervisor’s name:………………………………
Date :………………………………

Signature :……………………………...
nd
2 Supervisor’s name:………………………….......
Date :………………………………
 iii

DECLARATION

“I hereby, declare this thesis entitled Development of Four Wheel Steering System
for RC Vehicle is the result of my own research except as cited in the reference”

Signature :…………………………………
Author name : MOHD HANIF BIN MD YUSUF
Date : 12 MAY 2009
 iv

DEDICATION

To my beloved father,
Md Yusuf B Ithnain
And to my beloved mother,
Faridah Bt Sulaiman
who keep me continuously motivated with their great support and encouragement
throughout my Bachelor Degree program.
 v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this opportunity to thank to Allah S.W.T. with all His
Gracious and His Merciful for giving me strength and ability, to finish my final year
project. By this chance, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr.
Khisbullah Hudha for his kind effort in guiding me to perform the project procedure
and lending his hand for supporting me in my project accomplishment.

I also want to give my thankful greeting to Mr. Ubaidillah, and Mr. Fithrian,
who also the Master’s students in the Mechanical Engineering Department for giving
me guidance and cooperation to assist in achieving my project objectives. The other
appreciation also favors to the other Master’s students those were helping me
indirectly and always welcoming me to ask question.

Finally, to my unforgettable fellow friends, housemates and whoever

involved in the project whether direct or indirectly are expressed with many thanks.
 vi

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, the every vehicle existed mostly still using the two wheel steering system
to control the movement of the vehicle whether it is front wheel drive, rear wheel
drive or all wheel drive. But due to the awareness of safety, four wheel steering
vehicles are being used increasingly due to high performance and stability that they
bring to the vehicles. In this report, the performance of four wheels steered vehicle
model is considered which is optimally controlled during a lane change maneuver in
three type of condition which is low speed maneuver, medium speed maneuver and
high speed maneuver. The configuration of this work is a technique for
predetermination of system's stability based on pole placement method. Simulation
results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed model and controller. The analysis
will be conducted using MATLAB software to analyze and to prove whether four
wheel steering system is better than the two wheel steering system. After that, the
suitable configuration will be chosen that suit the remote control (RC) vehicle model
to transform from two wheel steering system to four wheel steering system. The
linkages will be installed according to the appropriate geometry based on the vehicle
structure. After all the processes of modification completed, the RC vehicle will be
tested to see the result given same as the simulation result or not.
 vii

ABSTRAK

Pada masa kini, kebanyakan kenderaan yang wujud masih lagi menggunakan sistem
stereng dua tayar untuk mengawal pergerakan kenderaan sama ada ia adalah pacuan
hadapan, pacuan belakang atau pacuan empat roda. Tetapi kerana untuk kepentingan
keselamatan, kenderaan yang menggunakan sistem stereng 4 tayar telah banyak
digunakan kerana mempunyai prestasi dan kestabilan yang tinggi yang diberikan
oleh sistem stereng kepada kenderaan. Dalam laporan ini, prestasi untuk model
kenderaan sistem stereng empat roda akan digunakan dan akan dikawal secara
optimum ketika pergerakan perubahan lorong dalam tiga jenis keadaan iaitu
pergerakan pada kelajuan rendah, pergerakan pada kelajuan sederhana dan
pergerakan pada kelajuan yang tinggi. Konfigurasi untuk kerja ini ialah teknik
pempratentuan tentang kestabilan sistem berdasarkan kaedah gambarajah kenderaan
sistem stereng empat roda. Hasil dari simulasi akan menggambarkan tentang
keberkesanan model yang di cadangkan berserta dengan data yang akan dikawal.
Analisis akan dilakukan menggunakan perisian MATLAB untuk mengkaji sama ada
sistem stereng empat roda adalah lebih baik daripada sistem stereng dua roda.
Selepas itu, konfigurasi yang sesuai dengan model kereta kawalan jauh akan dipilih
dan ditukarkan daripada sistem stereng dua roda kepada sistem stereng empat roda.
Pemasangan sambungan akan dibuat berdasarkan kaedah yang bersesuaian dengan
geometri model kereta kawalan jauh tersebut. Setelah semua proses telah lengkap
dilaksanakan, model kereta kawalan jauh yang telah diubahsuai akan diuji untuk
melihat adakah keputusan yang ditunjukan, sama dengan keputusan simulasi ataupun
tidak.
 viii

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER TITLE PAGES

DECLARATION iii
DEDICATION iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v
ABSTRACT vi
ABSTRAK vii
TABLE OF CONTENT viii
LIST OF TABLE xi
LIST OF FIGURE xii
LIST OF SYMBOL xvi
LIST OF APPENDIX xviii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Objective 3
1.3 Scope 3
1.4 Problem Statement 3

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Steering system 5
2.2 Type of Steering System 7
2.2.1 Four Wheel Steering (4WS) 7
2.2.2 Manual steering 8
2.2.2.1 Recirculating ball steering 9
 ix

CHAPTER TITLE PAGES

2.2.2.2 Rack and pinion steering 10

2.2.3 Power Steering 11
2.2.4 SuperSteer 12
2.2.5 Steer-By-Wire 13
2.2.6 Speed Adjustable Steering 15
2.2.7 Quadrasteer 15
2.2.8 Articulated steering 16
2.3 RC Model 17
2.3.1 Ackerman Angle 17
2.3.2 4WS System 19
2.3.3 RC Geometry 21
2.3.4 RC Design 22
2.4 Testing of Handling Characteristics 24
2.4.1 Constant Forward Speed Test 24
2.4.1.1 Double Lane Change 24
Maneuver
2.4.1.2 Single Lane Change 26
Maneuver
2.4.2 Constant Radius Test 27
2.4.3 Slalom Test 27

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 28
3.1 Flowchart 28
3.1.1 Project Overview 28
3.1.2 Problem Identification 30
3.1.3 Data collection 30
3.1.4 Analysis activity 30
3.1.5 Model making and testing 31
3.1.6 Discussion and progress report 32
3.2 Experimental setup 33
 x

3.2.1 Equipments 33
3.3 Result variable 36
3.4 Experiment procedure 37

CHAPTER 4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION 41

4.1 Mathematical modeling 41
4.2 Simulation Studies 44
4.2.1 Conditions for the simulations 44
4.3 Control Structure 46
4.4 Result discussion 47
4.4.1 Simulation result 47
4.4.2 Experiment result 51
4.4.3 Result Validation 54

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK 56

5.1 Conclusion 56
5.2 Future Work 58

REFERENCES 59
BIBLIOGRAPHY 62
APPENDICES 63
 xi

LIST OF TABLE

NO. TITLE PAGES

4.1 Vehicle Parameters 45

4.2 Final test result 54
5.1 Advantages for the 2WS and 4WS 55
5.2 Disadvantages for the 2WS and 4WS 56
 xii

LIST OF FIGURE

NO. TITLE PAGES

1.1 Steering system diagram (Basic structure, 2000) 1

2.1 Vehicle six degree of freedom (Wong, 2001) 6

2.2 Rear wheels are turned in opposite direction of front 7

wheels (Four Wheel Steering System, 2009)

2.3 All four wheels are turned in same direction 8

(Four Wheel Steering System, 2009)

2.4 Typical recirculating ball steering system 9

(Nice, Recirculating ball steering, 2009)

2.5 Rough diagram of a Recirculating Ball steering 10

mechanism (Nice, Recirculating ball steering, 2009)

2.6 Typical rack and pinion steering gear, used on most of 10

today’s passenger vehicles (Rack and Pinion, 2009)

2.7 Rack and pinion steering diagram 11

(Nice, Rack and Pinion, 2009)

2.8 Operation of a power steering system (Nichols, 1998) 12

 xiii

2.9 Tractor using the super steer steering system 13

(Super Steer, 2009)

2.10 Steer-by-wire mechanical system (Lorincz, 2004) 14

2.11 Quadrasteer Steering System (Cooney, 2003) 16

2.12 Hydraulic cylinders control the articulated steering 17

(Articulated Steering, 2006)

2.13 Parallel steering arms 18

(Ackerman Steering Principle, 2009)

2.14 Effects of angled or Ackerman Steering 18

(Ackerman Steering Principle, 2009)

2.15 Ways of steering the rear wheels 20

(Brabec, P. et. al., 2004)

2.16 Comparison of the avoidance maneuver with a vehicle 20

with 2WS (conventional steering) and 4WS
(Brabec, P. et. al., 2004)

2.17 Sample of vehicle model (Brabec, P. et. al., 2004) 21

2.18 Arrangement of the model 22

2.19 Component for the first design (Steering servo, 2008) 23

2.20 Design for the linkage between the front axle and rear 23
axle (Steering servo, 2008)

2.21 ISO-standard double lane change (Orozco, 2004) 25

 xiv

2.22 Road path for real input to vehicle and analytic input 26
(Orozco, 2004)

2.23 Single lane change test (Professor Will, 2000) 26

2.24 Straight slalom test 27

3.1 Flow Chart for the whole PSM 29

3.2 The linkages and servo that want to test to determine the 32
durability and it can work properly

3.3 Flour on the surface of the testing area with the starting 33
grid

3.4 Remote control car model (Scale 1: 10 from the actual 34

size vehicle)

3.5 Steering servo and the linkages 34

3.6 Servo with the modified wiring 35

3.7 Suspension system and wheel 35

3.8 The initial testing 36

3.9 The experiment flow for the J-Turn Test 38

3.10 The experiment flow for the Circle Test 39

3.11 The experiment flow for the Slalom Test 40

4.1 Parameter definition for the vehicle model 41

 xv

4.2 Main system for single model 46

4.3 Control structure in the main model 46

4.4 Graph of vehicle sideslip angle versus time (single lane- 47

low speed)

4.5 Graph of vehicle sideslip angle versus time (single lane- 48

high speed)

4.6 Graph of vehicle sideslip angle versus time (double 49

lane-low speed)

4.7 Graph of vehicle sideslip angle versus time (double 50

lane-high speed)

4.8 Result for J-Turn Test 51

4.9 Result for Circle Test 52

4.10 Result for Slalom Test (1m pole to pole) 53

4.11 Result for Slalom Test for 4WS (0.75 m between poles) 53
 xvi

LIST OF SYMBOL

D∅ = Roll axis damping, Nm/rad

K∅ = Roll axis stiffness, Nm/rad
∅ = Vehicle roll angle, rad
Cf = Front cornering stiffness, N/rad
Cr = Rear cornering stiffness, N/rad
F xij = Tire longitudinal force, N
F yij = Lateral force, N
G = Gravity acceleration, ms-2
hs = Distance of the sprung mass c.g. from the roll axes, m
I xx = Moment of inertia about roll axis, kg m2
I xz = Sprung mass product of inertia, kg m2
I zz = Moment of inertia about yaw axis, kg m2
Lf = Distance from c.g. to front axle, m
Lr = Distance from c.g. to rear axle, m
m = Vehicle total mass, kg
ms = Vehicle sprung mass, kg
Tf = Front track width, m
Tr = Rear track width, m
u = Longitudinal velocity, ms-1
v = Lateral velocity, ms-1
X ij = Longitudinal tire force, N
Y ij = Lateral tire force, N
αf = Front wheel slip angle, rad
αr = Rear wheel slip angle, rad
β = Vehicle sideslip angle, rad
γ, � = Yaw rate, rad/sec
 xvii

δf = Front wheel steering angle, rad

δr = Rear wheel steering angle, rad
 xviii

LIST OF APPENDIX

NO. TITLE PAGES

A Gantt Chart for PSM 1 and PSM 2 63

B Steering Configuration Figures 64
C Rear Wheel Linkages, Measuring procedure and RC 65
vehicle drifting
 1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Figure 1.1: Steering system diagram (Basic structure, 2000).

Steering is a device that was used in most type of transport to control the
movement of the vehicle. Steering system is the vehicle movement control system that
includes the a few main components which are the steering wheel, the steering column,
the steering rack and last but not least the wheel as shown in Figure 1.1.
 2

In Figure 1.1, the steering system was build by the combination from a few
components that help driver with the handling maneuver. The components are, : 1)
steering wheel; (2) steering shaft; (3) intermediate shaft; (4) steering gear assembly; (5)
pressure hose; (6) return hose; (7) oil pump; (8) solenoid valve; (9) ECU; (10) reserve
tank; (11) steering angle sensor; (12) check connector.

A steering aid system called active steering is evaluated by simulating different

driving events. The active steering solution, which is taken from a scientific paper, has
been implemented in MATLAB. The input to the vehicle model is the steering wheel
angle performed by the driver/ controller. Simulations are made by using constant speed
as a reference and a specific changeable road adhesion coefficient as an input.

The control system takes the slip angle as input and derives a steering angle
contribution to be added to the drivers command. The motivation for this work is to
understand and characterize the response of a vehicle with a complementary steering
system. Specific driving events are considered for the simulations such as a wind force
disturbance and a severe double lane change.

The response of the controlled vehicle is similar to the response of the

conventional vehicle for nominal driving, but the steering aid system reduces the effect
of wind force disturbances. Improved stability is obtained for the vehicle during slippery
road driving.

Four wheel steering vehicles are being used increasingly due to high
performance and stability that they bring to the vehicles. In this project, a high
performance four wheel steered vehicle model is considered which is optimally
controlled during a lane change maneuver in three different type of maneuver; low speed
maneuver, medium speed maneuver and high speed maneuver. The specific
configuration of this work is a technique for predetermination of system's stability based
on pole placement method. Simulation results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed
model and the controller. Lastly, the testing will be conducted to support the data from
 3

the simulation and the comparison will be discussed to determine if the experimental
result follow the simulation data to prove that the 4WS is better than the 2WS vehicle.

1.2 Objectives

There are two objectives need to be achieved by the end of the semester which are:
i. To develop an active control of four wheel steering system on RC vehicle.
ii. To analytically study the advantages of additional rear wheel steering system in
reducing the turning radius during maneuver.

1.3 Scope

The main scopes for this project are:

i. Deriving mathematical model of four wheel steering system.
ii. To modify the existing Forward Wheel Steering (FWS) of RC vehicle into 4
Wheel Steering (4WS) systems.
iii. Simulation studies on the controller design of 4WS system by using the
MATLAB Simulink.

1.4 Problem Statement

Nowadays, many vehicles are still using the two wheel steering system as their
main handling system for their vehicle. But the efficiency of the two wheel steering
(2WS) vehicle is proven that it is still low compared to the four wheel steering (4WS)
 4

system car. So, this project is base on how to prove that the 4WS is better than 2WS
through Simulink and experimental result.

For the initial step, various designs must be made to search for the right
mechanism to make the rear wheel to become the steerable rear wheel system, combine
with the front wheel steering system and become the four wheel steering (4WS) system.
For the requirement of this project, 4WS system must be installed to the remote control
(RC) vehicle to make all the wheel steerable and a few testing procedures must be done,
where a lot of data can be measure and record to the final result comparison.
 5

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature review is the initial step to collect all the information and data about
the topic that for this research, and from the information gathered, it will be analyze and
the experiment testing will be done according to the journal or research, to get the real
result from the real situation. When gathering the information about this topic, several
sources have been used, such as journal, references book, website and other source
regarding to the research topic from the already made product as guidance to learn more
about the topic for this project. Therefore, this initial stage is very important to learn
more the topics, to get know the problems arise and how to solve it before doing the
simulation and experiment procedures.

2.1 Steering system

The handling characteristics of a road vehicle refer to its response to the steering
commands and to the surrounding inputs, such as wind gust and road disturbances, that
effect the direction of the vehicle. There are two basic problems in vehicle handling: one
is the control of the direction of motion of the vehicle; the other is its ability to stabilize
its direction of motion against external disturbances (Wong, 2001).
 6

The vehicle as a rigid body has six degrees of freedom, translations along the x, y
and z-axis, and rotations about this axis shown in Fig.2.1. The primary motions due to
the handling behavior of a vehicle are longitudinal, lateral, and yaw motion. During
turning maneuver, the vehicle body rolls about the x- axis. This roll motion may cause
the wheels to steer, thus affecting the handling behavior of the vehicle. Furthermore,
bounce and pitch motions of the vehicle body, may also affect the steering response of
the vehicle. However, the inclusion of these motions only become necessary in the
analysis when considering the limits of handling characteristics (Wong, 2001).

Figure 2.1: Vehicle six degree of freedom (Wong, 2001).

Simplified linear model for the handling behavior of passenger car in which
suspension characteristics are not taken into account will be discussed. The model
demonstrate the effects on handling behavior of major vehicle design and operational
parameters, such as tire properties, location of the center gravity, and forward speed and
lead to conclusions of practical significance concerning directional control and stability.
The response of the vehicle to steering input and its directional stability associated with
a fixed steering wheel, which are usually referred as fixed control- characteristics will be
analyzed (Wong, 2001).

Nowadays, there are two types of steering system that are commonly used, that
are Front Wheel Steering (Two Wheel Steering) and Four Wheel Steering.