J ournal of Computational Information Systems 7:1 (2011) 119-126

Available at http://www.J ofcis.com

1553-9105/ Copyright 2011 Binary Information Press
J anuary, 2011
Electric Power Steering Simulation Analyze Based on Fuzzy PID
Current Tracking Control
Huaiquan ZANG

, Shuanyong CHEN
Institute of Electrical and Engineering, YanShan University, QinHuangDao 066004, China
Key Lab of Industrial Computer Control Engineering of HeBei Province

Abstract
Through analyzing of the electric power steering (EPS) structure and union the vehicle dynamic characteristics, this paper
establishes a mathematical model of EPS. And the EPS systemsimulation model based on Matlab/Simulink is built. The
fuzzy PID control strategy is adopted to control the actual current of the motor tracking precisely the target current, and the
motor current compensation that for inhibition of road surface disturbance is taken. Conventional assist control and
damping control that apply to the systemwith the different road and different speed are simulated and analyzed. The
simulation results show that this strategy is effective and practical: target current tracking effect is better; the vehicle of
steering torque decrease apparently compare with the non-assistant power system; the driver could get seemly road feel; the
wallop to steering wheel is restrained effectively when the vehicle is driving on the uneven road.
Keywords: Electric Power Steering; Current Tracking; Fuzzy PID; Damping Control;
1. Introduction
Because of low-carbon, energy saving, fault diagnosis oneself advantage factors, Electric Power
Steering(EPS) is gradually replacing the hydraulic power steering system and leading the steering system in
the modern car development[1, 3].According to the steering torqueautomobile speedand road conditions
etc, the system can provide the real time assistant torque through assist motor to help driver steering, and
make steering easier gentle, guarantee the driver has the best steering feel in the variety of operating
conditions. At present, the design for the assist motor control have mainly two methods: the one is motor
current loop control based on classical control theory, the other one is the state-space model H

control
based on modern control theory [2]. Literature [3] using the motor current tracking control based on
conventional PID achieved good results. But the system had drawbacks of relatively parameters are fixed
and the adaptive capacity is weak. Literature [4, 13] using a H

robust control improved the system

stability and anti-disturb capability, but that increased the complexity of the control system, which set
higher requirement of the computing power to the control ship. That is not beneficial to the promotion of
products. Literature [6] analyzed lightly of vehicle steering only on the single road condition, but ignored
the vehicle steering lightly simulation under the different coefficient of friction road. Literature [7, 12]

Corresponding author.
Email addresses: hqzang@hotmail.com(Huaiquan ZANG).
120 H. Zang et al. /Journal of Computational Information Systems 7:1 (2011) 119-126

established an EPS mathematical model, and the simulation results showed that the strategy could achieve
the desired characteristics, but the driver model and the vehicle speed werent taken into account, the
results had certain limitations.
Based on the above literature review, in this paper we will put Column Electric Power Steering(C-EPS)
structure model for studying, and the fuzzy PID control strategy is adopted to assist motor target current
tracking control. Through analyzing simulation results by loading the driver model and the different speed
and different road conditions on the system, indicating that the strategy is easy to adjust the control
parameters, control algorithm is simple and practical, the hardware is easy to achieve, and have anti-disturb
ability when the vehicle driving on the uneven road.
This paper is organized as follows. In section 2 we will build a mathematical model by the structure of
the C-EPS model. In section 3 we will accord the system control strategy to design a motor target current
tracking controller. In section 4 we will analyze steering lightly, road feel, anti-disturb ability of the C-EPS
system. The conclusions are given in section 5.
2. C-EPS Structure Model and Mathematical Model
2.1. Structure Principle
C-EPS structure formed by the steering columnspeed sensortorque sensorelectric control unit(ECU)
assist motorelectromagnetic clutchgear box and gear rack. The electromagnetic clutch closed when
system is working and the clutch will open the contact with motor and column when the system appeared
fault. The system will set the automobile speed, steering wheel torque signal which is collected by ECU as
input, the controller calculated the assist motor torque as output, which transmitted through the gear box
provided smooth steering torque to help the driver steering.
I
Assist Motor
Gear Rack
Steering Column
s B
s K
:1 G
s R
m
B
m
K
m T
r M r x
s
d
T
Torque Sensor
m
J
Small Gear
r B r
K
s
J
ECU
V
c T
Automobile Speed
cmd
I

Fig.1 Column Electric Power Steering SystemModel
2.2. Built C-EPS Mathematical Model
According to analyze the C-EPS vehicle dynamic characteristics at first, then we build mathematical model
of the C-EPS.
Steering column, rack and pinion model [2, 4]:
H. Zang et al. /Journal of Computational Information Systems 7:1 (2011) 119-126 121


s s s s c d
J B T T + + =
ii i
(1)

c a
r r r r TR
s s
T T
M x B x F
R R
+ =
ii i
(2)
Assist motor model:

m m m m m a
J B T T + =
ii i
(3)

m a a
T K i = (4)

a a b m
U Ri Li K = + +
i i
(5)
( )
r
a m m
s
x
T GK G
R
= (6)
Driver model [5]:

1 1 1
1
( )( )
d s s p i d
T K K K s
s

= + + (7)
Torque sensor model:
( )
r
c s s
s
x
T K
R
= (8)
T
d
, T
a
, T
c
, T
m
, represent applied driver torqueassist motor torquesensor measurement torquemotor
electromagnetic torque;
s

,
s
,
m
,

represent reference input for the steering wheel anglethe actual
steering wheel anglethe motor rotation angle; U, L, R, i
a
, represent motor voltageinductanceresistance
current; x
r
represent rack horizontal displacement; J
s
, J
m
, represent the steering column inertia and motor
inertia; F
TR
represent vehicle load; B
s
,B
m
, B
r
, represent steering column damping coefficientmotor
damping coefficientsteering tie rod damping coefficient; K
s
, K
m
, represent the column stiffness and motor
stiffness; M
r
represent steering tie rod mass; R
s
is the radius of pinion steering; K
a
, K
b
represent motor
electromagnetic torque coefficient, anti-EMF coefficient; G is the gear ratio; K
p1
, K
i1
, K
d1
, represent the
driver model parameters.
3. C-EPS System Control Strategy and Controller Design
3.1. Control Strategy Requirement
When the car turning at the different speeds, the motor could provide appropriate auxiliary torque for driver
through the assistant map determinate target current: at low speed ensure a flexible lightly steering, reduce
the burden of driver operation, at high speed ensure stable and reliable steering and make the driver own a
good road feel; In addition, when the vehicle suffer a greater disturb from the road side, the system is able
to suppress the steering shake and achieve a calm smooth turning. According to the above requirement, we
design the EPS control strategy is shown in Figure 2.
122 H. Zang et al. /Journal of Computational Information Systems 7:1 (2011) 119-126

Vehicle load
-
+
Assistant map
cmd I
U
I
r
x
c T
a
T
TR
F
V
c T
Motor
model
Driver
model
Torque
sensor model
Rack and
pinion model
Current tracking
control model
d T
+

Fig.2 The Diagramof C-EPS Structure Control Strategy
3.2. System Controller Designed
Conventional assist controller core factor is how fast and accurate tracking of motor target current [3, 11].In
this paper, we adopt fuzzy PID closed loop control structure, according to the input motor target current
with the output motor actual current deviation and the deviation change rate online adjust PID parameters,
make the actual current to achieve the goal that tracking target current. This control strategy could
overcome the conventional PID control parameters fixed defect, and the system stability robust and
adaptive has been greatly improved. Specific design method as follows: Controller put the current
deviation e and deviation change rate de as fuzzy reasoning controller input, its in the range of
[-15,15] ,[-7,7],which can be divided into seven fuzzy sets {NB,NM,NS,ZE,PS,PM,PB}.The output
variable k
p
,k
i
,k
d
, in the range of [-2,2],[-0.5,0.5],[-0.02,0.02],also divided into seven fuzzy sets
{NB,NM,NS,ZE,PS,PM,PB}.The input and output variables membership function is used triangular
membership function [8, 9]. In order to restrain uneven road generated disturb to the steering torque, we
introduce motor rotation angle based on the conventional target current tracking, make the motor target
current to get damping compensation.

'
m
I I K

= + (9)
I

is the motor compensation current, I is the motor current, K

is the compensation damping gain.
Current tracking controller design is shown in Figure 3:

Fig. 3 Current Tracking Control Model
4. C-EPS System Simulation and Analysis
According to the C-EPS mathematical model, we build simulation model of the C-EPS in the
Matlab/Simulink. The control strategy is adopted to make different road conditions steering the lightly of
H. Zang et al. /Journal of Computational Information Systems 7:1 (2011) 119-126 123

simulation, damping simulation and the road feel simulation with the different speeds. The parameter of the
simulation is shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Parameters of C-EPS System
Parameter Symbol Value Units
Motor moment of inertia J
m 4.5210
-4
Kg i m
2
Motor damping B
m
3.33910
-3
N i m i s i rad
-1
Motor EMF constant K
b
0.02 V i s i rad
-1

Motor torque K
a
0.04 N i m i A
-1

Motor stiffness K
m
125 N i m i rad
-1

Motor inductance L 1.510
-3
Henry
Motor resistance R 0.1 Ohm
Steering wheel moment of inertia J
s
4.5910
-2
Kg i m
2

Steering column stiffness K
s
115 N i m i s i rad
-1

Rack damping B
s
0.361 N i m i s i rad
-1
Rack and wheel assembly mass M
r
32 Kg
Motor gear ratio G 16
Pinion radius R
s
7.78310
-3
m
4.1. Choice the Assist Line and the Current Tracking Response
Because of assistance in the form of linear map is simple, easy to adjust in practice, and beneficial to
control system design, it is used widely in the system design [2, 3]. In this paper we adopt assistant map is
shown in Figure 4.
-8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
Steering Torque(Nm)
T
a
r
g
e
t

C
u
r
r
e
n
t
(
A
)


0Km/h
40Km/h
85Km/h
113Km/h
120km/h

Fig.4 Assistance Characteristic Map of Line
Figure 5 is the steering sin input (analog steering wheel round left and right) the situation of the current
tracking when the vehicle is driving 40Km/h. Compared to the conventional PID control strategy current
tracking, Fuzzy PID control strategy could make the assist motor actual current and target current to
overlap, so it can be seen on the motor current tracking to achieve good results.
124 H. Zang et al. /Journal of Computational Information Systems 7:1 (2011) 119-126

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
Time(Sec)
T
a
r
g
e
t

c
u
r
r
e
n
t
-
A
c
t
u
a
l

c
u
r
r
e
n
t
(
A
)


Target Current
Fuzzy PID current
PID current

Fig.5 The Compare of Motor Current Tracking on the Different Control Strategy
4.2. C-EPS Steering Lightly Simulation and Analysis
When the car turning, the steering wheel overcome to the main force are: the friction between tire and the
ground, return power and steering transmission in the various forms of friction. These forces determine the
load characteristics of automotive steering system [10]. In the specific tire and road conditions, we ignore
the intermittent characteristics of steering system, the steering system load characteristics F
TR
decided by K
r
and B
r
.

TR r r r r
F K x B x = +
i
(10)
K
r
is the tire or rack centering spring rate, relation the road surface friction coefficient. The steering
lightly on the three different road conditions is simulated when the vehicle is in situ. The simulation results
are shown in Figure 6, 7.
-500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
Steering Angle(deg)
S
t
e
e
r
i
n
g

T
o
r
q
u
e
(
N
m
)


Friction Coefficient1.0
Fricition Coefficient0.8
Friction Coefficient0.3
-500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
Steering Angle(deg)
S
t
e
e
r
i
n
g

T
o
r
q
u
e
(
N
m
)


Friction coefficient1.0
Friction coefficient0.8
Friction coefficition0.3

Fig.6 Relation of Steering Torque and Steering Angle Fig.7 Relation of Steering Torque and Steering Angle
with Non-assist Power in Situ with Assist Power in Situ
Through steering maximum wheel torque comparative analysis under different road conditions, the
H. Zang et al. /Journal of Computational Information Systems 7:1 (2011) 119-126 125

vehicle with the C-EPS structure spin the same steering angle required the torque is significant reduce. The
motor improve apparently the steering lightly, and reduce the driver fatigue strength.
4.3. C-EPS Turning Road Feel Simulation and Analysis
In order to observe the driver get road feel information, we adopt in situ, low-speed, medium-speed,
high-speed to observe the driver input torque and the assist motor input torque when simulation. The
simulation results are shown in Figure 8, 9.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
Time(Sec)
M
o
t
o
r

a
s
s
is
t

t
o
r
q
u
e
(
N
m
)


0Km/h
40Km/h
85Km/h
110Km/h
120Km/h
-500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500
-10
-5
0
5
10
Steering angle(deg)
S
t
e
e
r
i
n
g

t
o
r
q
u
e
(
N
m
)


0Km/h
40Km/h
85Km/h
113Km/h
120Km/h

Fig.8 Relation of Torque and Steering Angle with the Fig.9 Assist Motor Torque with the Different Speed
Different Speed
Simulation results show that when the vehicle is driving low speed, the driver input torque is small and
the assist motor input torque is large, which make the steering lightly and flexible. When the vehicle is
driving high speed, the driver input torque increases and the assist motor input torque decreases, which
make the steering steady and heavy. It solves the conflict between lightly and flexible when the vehicle
steering, the driver could get better sense of road information.
4.4. C-EPS Damping Control Simulation and Analysis
To simulate the impact of cars by the disturb on the ground, the sine wave which is amplitude of 400N,
frequency of 10HZ will add to the system when the vehicle is driving in 40Km/h in order to observe the
damping control effect. The simulation result is shown in Figure 10.
-500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
Steering angle(deg)
S
t
e
e
r
in
g

t
o
r
q
u
e
(
N
m
)


Conventional control
Damping control

Fig.10 Damping Control of C-EPS System
126 H. Zang et al. /Journal of Computational Information Systems 7:1 (2011) 119-126

Simulation result show that: compare to the conventional control, the damping control could inhibition
the external shocks to the steering wheel torque ripple, and make the steering torque smooth and stable.
5. Conclusion
In this paper based on the C-EPS current tracking problem, we design a fuzzy PID control strategy, and the
motor current is compensated to the anti-interference on the road. Through the simulation of the system
show the effective and practicality of the algorithm.
Based on this work, further research directions and issues should be considered: Simulink model of the
system to generate program code for real-time experimental verification by ECU; System model more
complex situations, such as nonlinear system parameters uncertainties.
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