Enhancement of Subjective Steering Feel in Driver-In-The- Loop Simulators

With the increasing use of virtual models and driver in the loop simulators for vehicle development the traditional activities of automotive companies and suppliers are having to adapt. Previously OEM’s would drive early prototypes and use competitor vehicles as a comparative benchmark, however, this can be replaced with the use of a digital twin of a competitor vehicle to allow a virtual comparison to be performed. Additionally Tier 1 suppliers who traditionally developed their physical prototype products using the ‘best in class’ vehicle as a test bed require a representative vehicle model to enable them to make the transition to software-based development. Although representative chassis models can be produced from objective data, the key interaction the driver has in a static simulator is via the steering feedback and if this is not adequate it has a detrimental effect on the driver’s subjective opinion of the entire vehicle model behaviour and makes it difficult to carry out any comparisons or detailed development.

In this paper HORIBA MIRA explains the process of determining the key steering system parameters that influence feedback with particular focus on use in static simulators. A range of steering systems have been measured and assessed and the data is used to provide a reference for the model parameterisation and to define the key parameters that influence the subjective feel. The steering feedback is generated using the Pfeffer steering model, available within commercial low degree of freedom software packages, and, where required, a secondary controller system with additional and tuneable functionality has been developed.