Automotive winter testing with path-following steering robot

Abstract

When testing modern active safety systems on cars, it is essential to test vehicle response to steering inputs. This paper highlights the use of a path-following steering robot for repetitive car testing in winter conditions. Experiments have been made with commonly used test sequences, e.g., lane-change, double lane-change, constant radius circle, and handling circuit. The steering input from the human driver is replaced by a steering robot and a path-following algorithm. The main focus for this paper is to describe what happens when one pushes the path-following system to, and beyond, the physical limitations of road grip when cornering at high vehicle speed. It shows that, with an appropriate tuning of the path-following parameters, the system performs predictably and satisfactorily. The overall conclusion is that a path-following steering robot is indeed useful for repetitive test in winter conditions with poor road grip.