Realization of Control Algorithm for Electro-Hydraulic

Power Steering System Based on MC9S08AW32

Microcontroller
Xia Chang-gao, Zhu Zhong-ming, and Zheng Rong-liang
College of Automobile and Traffic Engineering, Jiangsu University,
Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province
xiacg@ujs.edu.cn

Abstract. Electro-hydraulic power steering system (EHPS) can get over the bug
of assist power that can't be regulated in the traditional hydraulic power steering
system (HPS). Because its assist power is greater than electronic power steering
system (EPS), it is suitable for medium and heavy vehicles. In this paper, based
on the EHPS system parameters, the control algorithm of the non-linear relations
among steering wheel angular velocity, vehicle speed and motor speed of EHPS,
which was designed to meet the steering portability at low speed and obvious
steering feel and rapid response at high speed and save energy, was given.
MC9S08AW32 was applied to design the control system of BLDCM and the
scheme of hardware and software were given. The controller communicates with
the computer through a special chip. Therefore the digital transmission between
the controller and external device is realized. Finally the rationality and validity
of the design is verified by the experimental results.
Keywords: Steering System, Electro-Hydraulic Assist Power, Controller.

Introduction

Vehicle steering system is the key assembly to vehicle active safety system and it
affects the consumption of energy at the same time. Most modern vehicles assemble
power steering system to meet people's increasing requirements of vehicles handling
comfort and portability. Today more than 90% of vehicle power steering systems
assemble an engine-driven hydraulic power steering system (HPS). Due to the
existence of HPS the phenomenon of decrease of drivers road feeling is likely to occur,
when driving mileage is a straight road steering system do not need to work but the HPS
system has always been in the engine-driven pump output of hydraulic energy, the
energy consumes in vain; HPS is mainly designed by overcoming largest steering
resistance at the low-speed parking condition to ensure the steering efforts. Engine
speed is between 500 r/min and 800r/min at the low-speed parking condition while
about 3 to 8 times the idle speed at medium-speed, high-speed driving at which time
steering resistance needed decreases but engine-driven oil pump is in high-speed
operation, the output flow is several times larger than that in the parking conditions and
hydraulic energy output can be far beyond the needed so large quantities of energy is
L. Jiang (Ed.): International Conference on ICCE2011, AISC 110, pp. 581589.
springerlink.com
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

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X. Chang-gao, Z. Zhong-ming, and Z. Rong-liang

wasted. In order to overcome the shortcomings brought by engine-driven oil pump of

traditional HPS system, some vehicle manufactures like TRW, ZF and Delphi research
electro-hydraulic power steering system (EHPS) which use DC motors instead of
engine to drive the steering pump in recent years.
EHPS sets the advantages of hydraulic power steering system and electric power
steering system (EPS) in one. Compared to HPS, EHPS uses DC motor to drive oil
pump so larger hydraulic flow is provided by the electric pump at engine idle while
decreases at high speed according to the demands of steering gear. Variable assist
power is gained according to the steering demands. Compared to EPS, EHPS is
superior in the aspect of the comfort of steering feeling and the attenuation of the
impact of the road due to the existence of hydraulic part. Therefore, it improves driving
comfort and safety[1].
In this paper, based on the EHPS system parameters, the control algorithm of the
non-linear relations among steering wheel angular velocity, vehicle speed and motor
speed of EHPS which was designed to meet the steering portability at low speed and
obvious steering feel and rapid response at high speed and energy-saving was given.
MC9S08AW32 was applied to design the control system of a brushless DC motor
(BLDCM).

Configuration and Working Principle of EHPS

The configuration and working principle of EHPS are shown in Figure 1[2][3]. System
mainly consists of power steering gear, oil reservoir, electro-hydraulic pump, power
steering ECU and related sensors so on.

Fig. 1. Scheme of EHPS Operational Principle

First, power steering ECU calculates the appropriate motor speed according to the
signals of the angular velocity sensor and vehicle speed sensor in real time and regulates
the motor speed to reach the appropriate speed. Driven by the motor, hydraulic pump
will pump high-pressure oil from a hole to diversion valve through a pipeline.
High-pressure oil does not flow into the oil reservoir but flow back into the hydraulic
pump directly when there is no steering operation. When there is a steering operation

Realization of Control Algorithm for Electro-Hydraulic Power Steering System

583

which makes valve spool and valve body move relative, causing high-pressure oil
flowing into one of the oil cylinders to form pressure difference between the left and
right cylinder, assist power was produced accordingly. Low-pressure oil in another
cylinder is pressed back into the hydraulic pump.

The Control Algorithm of EHPS

Two situations must be considered about the control algorithm of EHPS: First, when
there is no steering operation, namely the steering wheel is on-center (statistical data
show most of the steering operation occurs in the region when the steering wheel is
operated with small angle at high-speed driving). Because such cases account for the
vast majority of vehicle mileage, motor speed should be as low as possible considering
energy consumption. The relationship between motor idle speed (n0) and vehicle speed
(V) should be:
n0=kV+b.

(1)

k, b are constants. This design can meet the requirements that motor speed is at a
higher idle when at the low-speed parking condition or low-speed driving and provides
greater assist power and makes steering operation light and flexible. With the increase
of the vehicle speed motor idle should be gradually reduced and the flow of the oil
pump should be reduced accordingly . The assist power provided is small so the road
feeling at the high-speed driving is increased.
The second situation occurs when there is steering operation at a constant vehicle
speed. With the increase of the steering wheel angular velocity at a constant vehicle
speed motor speed should increase rapidly to provide greater assist power to meet the
requirements of enough assist power and rapid following. When the motor speed
increases to a certain value it should be set not to be changed and into the assist power
saturation region. To meet the above requirements motor speed can be expressed with
the following:

n0

n = f ( )
n
max

(0 < < 0 )
(0 1 )
( > 1 )

(2)

In the formula n0 is motor idle , motor idle speed is different at different vehicle
speed; nmax is the maximal speed which motor can achieve; f() is a linear function.
Judging from real vehicle testing, the coefficients in the equations (1) and (2) are
determined, the figure of the corresponding relationship among V, and n is obtained,
as shown in Figure 2(the corresponding curve is drawn by a large number of measured
points).
Obtaining the characteristic curve as shown in Figure 2, it could be dispersed into
several discrete curves of typical characteristic, and then control it by the characteristic
curve which is closest to the typical curves. But as to the continuously variable vehicle
speed, it would be difficult to get the exactly assist power at any vehicle speed,
resulting in the control error, when the change of the speed is great, the phenomenon of
non-uniform assist power and shake of steering wheel appears, therefore, the
characteristic curve needs fitted.

584

X. Chang-gao, Z. Zhong-ming, and Z. Rong-liang

As the neural network has better ability to approximate any complex non-linear
curve, suitable for handling fuzzy and non-linear problems. It has not only strong
robustness, but also a strong generalization[4][5]. So the neural network is used to fit
the characteristic curves.

Fig. 2. Relation Curves Among Vehicle Speed, Steering Wheel Angular Velocity and Rotate
Speed of BLDCM (Real Vehicle Testing)

Given any continuous function or mapping, a three-layer neural network can be used
to realize it accurately according to Kolmogorov mapping neural network theory[6]. A
three-layer BP neural network model is established for prediction. The BP structure
model is shown in Figure 3, the input layer has two input neurons (x1,x2), the steering
wheel angular velocity and vehicle speed respectively; output layer has one output
neurons n, namely motor speed. Hidden layer nodes are determined by the performance
of network influenced by the samples.

Fig. 3. BP Neural Network Chart

According to Figure 2 BP neural network is applied to fit the curves at different

speed to realize the curves corresponding to motor speed at continuous angular velocity
(as shown in Figure 4). There are two neurons in neural network model of the input
layer. According to performance of the network influenced by the samples provided,
the network converges fastest without over fitting by several attempts when the hidden
layer node is 20. So the hidden layer nodes are determined to be twenty while the output
layer one. Figure 4 shows the curve fitting result by the neural network while the
vehicle speed is 0km/h, 20km/h, 40km/h, 60km/h, 80km/h, 100km/h, respectively.

Realization of Control Algorithm for Electro-Hydraulic Power Steering System

585

In practical applications, according to Figure 4, a number of curves embedded into

the controller for brushless DC motor control.

Fig. 4. BP Neural Network Fitting Curve

4
4.1

The Design of EHPS Controller

Hardware of EHPS Controller

The hardware of EHPS system controller includes several parts as follows: steering
wheel angular velocity signal processing circuit, speed signal processing circuit, the
direction of assist power circuit, H bridge driver circuit controller power supply
module, over-current protection and diagnosis and output of fault module and so on.
Figure 5 shows the hardware structure of EHPS, single chip microcontroller (SCM)
MC9S08AW32 is dedicated to the field of vehicles and can meet the vehicle bad
working conditions.
Controllers power is supplied by the battery (12 volts). Current flows by two routes,
one route 5-volt voltage which provides power to the SCM pin 22, 44, 54 is got by the
power conversion circuit; another route the power is supplied to motor through the
H-bridge driver circuit. Pin 21 45 55 59 grounded. Pin 3, 56 are connected to the
reset pin of BDM and pin BKGD. The computer's USB port provides 5V power to
simulator. Pin 4 is connected to over-current protection circuit and its level value
reflects the over-current condition. Pin 11and 8 output two PWM signals and control
the upper and lower tube of H-bridge by H-bridge driver circuit. Vehicle speed and
steering wheel angular velocity signals are processed into pin 23 and 24. Pin 26 is
connected to direction control circuit. Two motor current feedback signals are
processed into pin 36 and 37. Pin 57 and 58 are connected to external crystal oscillator
circuit. R1, R2, C1, C2, shown in the figure need the appropriate value, otherwise,
crystal oscillator circuit does not start or stops vibration due to interference.

4.2

Control Software of EHPS

Figure 6 shows the flow chart of the main procedure of the EHPS control software.

16M

C2

X. Chang-gao, Z. Zhong-ming, and Z. Rong-liang

C1

R1

586

M C 9S08A W 32

P T F 4/T P M 2 C H 0

P T B 5 /A D 1 P 5
P T F 5/T P M 2 C H 1

P T B 4 /A D 1 P 4
P T B 3 /A D 1 P 3

PTA1

P T B 2 /A D 1P 2

VDD

motor current feedback signal

processing circuit

VREFL

VREFH

BKGD/MS

PTG5/XTAL

VSS

P T F 2/T P M 1C H 4

PTA0

H -b r id g e d r iv e c irc u it

V S SA D
VDDAD

48
47
46
45
44
43
42
41
40
39
38
37
36
35
34
33
32
processing
circuit
rotor position
sensor

direction control

Angular velocity sensor

speed processing circuit

speed
sensor

power conversion
circuit

battery

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

H -br id g e

o v er -c u rr e n t p r o te ctio n

P T F 0/T P M 1 C H 2

PTG1/KBI1P1

m o to r

R E ST
P T F 1 /T P M 1 C H 3

VDD

BDM

PTG0/KBI1P0

c o m p uter

PTC4

VSS

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

fa u lt c o d e
ou tp ut

PTG6/EXTAL

64
63
62
61
60
59
58
57
56
55
54
53
52
51
50
49

R2

Fig. 5. Hardware of Controller

As shown in Figure 6 finishing the initialization of each function module of

microcontroller the procedure detects the engine initial position by Hall position sensor
so as to start motor normally. Then the procedure detects engine speed and judge
whether it reaches the idle value. If the measured value is lower than the set idle speed
value the procedure doesnt go into main loop in which the procedure detects whether
the module is normal. If the fault is found the procedure goes into fault treatment loop
and assist power is terminated. When the system is normal A/D sampling and
conversion is started and the motor current is measured. Afterwards the level state of
I/O ports, which reflects the signals of steering wheel angular velocity, is detected and
judged to calculate the incremental PWM value. Then the procedure detects whether
the new vehicle speed signals are detected according to which the incremental PWM
value will be adjusted. Because vehicle speed signals are measured from external
interrupt the last speed factor is adopted if there are no new speed signals. Afterwards
the incremental PWM value is adjusted according to motor overheating and
over-current conditions. Finally the PWM signals are outputted to control motor so as
to provide assist power.

Realization of Control Algorithm for Electro-Hydraulic Power Steering System

587

Test Results Analysis

After hydraulic pump is loaded to the motor and hydraulic oil is injected, according to
the different speeds simulated by the procedure, the stable motor speed value without
steering operation can be measured as shown in Table . The maximal motor speed is
3600 r/min when duty cycle of PWM signal loaded in the power tube is 100%.
According to Figure 4, the motor speed without steering operation tallies with the
desired speed.

start

NO

con tin ue to d etect

en gin e sp eed

en gin e sp eed reach idle

speed?
NO

YES
system error

outpu t fault code

NO
NO
start A /D

steerin g w heel an gu lar velocity

sign al?
YES
process angular velocity sign al

PW M valu e b y calcu lating

m ain loop
adjust P W M using
revious coefficien t

NO

new veh icle sp eed ?

YES

find ou t the speed factor according to th e

sp eed an d adjust PW M

adju st PW M accordin g to
overheating coefficient

Y ES
overheating?
NO

adjust PW M accordin g to
over-cu rrent coefficient

YES

over-cu rrent?
NO

ou tput PW M

Fig. 6. Flow Chart of Main Procedure

Table 2 and Table 3, respectively, show the relationship between the steering wheel
angular velocity and motor speed when operating the steering wheel at the vehicle
speed of 20km/h and 100km/h.

588

X. Chang-gao, Z. Zhong-ming, and Z. Rong-liang

Table 1. Function of Motor Speed and Vehicle Speed while loaded without Operating Steering
Wheel
Vehicle Speed(km/h)
Measured Motor
Speed (r/min)
Desired Motor
Speed (r/min)

20

40

60

80

100

1940

1667

1430

1279

1208

1245

2000

1700

1500

1300

1250

1200

As shown from Table 2, the motor speed increases slowly and assist power lags
behind a little when operating the steering wheel rapidly at low vehicle speed. The
motor speed increases rapidly and steering efforts reduces and the steering operation is
portable in other cases. The maximum hydraulic oil pressure can reach to 4.9 MPa
when operating steering wheel according to oil pressure sensor.
As shown from Table 3, the change of motor speed is not obvious and only small
assist power is provided when operating steering wheel at high vehicle speed. Steering
feel is obvious thus steering sensitivity is ensured.
Table 2. Function of Motor Speed and Palstance of the Steering Wheel while Vehicle Speed is 20
km/h
Palstance of the
Steering Wheel
(/s)
Measured Motor
Speed (r/min)
Desired Motor
Speed (r/min)

49

102

149

313

389

1688

1702

2011

2399

3508

3564

1700

1700

2057

2456

3850

4000

Table 3. Function of Motor Speed and Palstance of the Steering Wheel while Vehicle Speed is
100 km/h
Palstance of the
Steering Wheel (/s)
Measured Motor Speed
(r/min)
Desired Motor Speed
(r/min)

48

103

147

312

391

1179

1187

1199

1334

1882

2142

1200

1200

1210

1355

1900160icle
speed is 12

2160

Conclusion

According to the analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn: the control
algorithms of non-linear relationship of EHPS among steering wheel angular velocity,
vehicle speed and motor speed , presented in this paper ,can meet the requirements that
the steering operation is portable at low vehicle speed and steering feel is obvious and
rapid response and energy-saving at high vehicle speed . Hardware and software system
of EHPS developed by MC9S08AW32 chip can meet the requirements of assist power
characteristic, steering feel and steering return-to-middle performance through tests.

Realization of Control Algorithm for Electro-Hydraulic Power Steering System

589

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