Steering Performance Evaluation of Off-Highway Vehicles Using MATLAB

Conventional hydraulic steering systems are traditionally used in off-highway vehicles. Better features are added to these hydraulic systems with increased comfort and controllability. Consequently, there is also growing need to virtually model these complex dynamic systems for evaluation and enhancement of performance.

This presentation focuses on using MATLAB^® to model, simulate, and analyze the dynamic behavior of hydraulic systems used in off-highway vehicles. The high-fidelity vehicle model is developed by modeling each component of the orbital steering system using standard libraries that exist in MATLAB. The complete vehicle was modeled as lumped mass, which will act on the tires and in turn acts as a load to the steering system.

The virtual model is capable of simulating different types of steering operations of the machine and different load cases at various steering angles in order to predict system performance characteristics. A virtual model enables John Deere engineers to simulate the orbital steering system and evaluate the system dynamic response and performance during the product development stage. Simulation results obtained will help them improve the system performance and design optimization, thereby reducing cost, accelerating product design development cycle time, and reducing field testing significantly.