UNIVERSAL DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF A VEHICLE STEERING SYSTEM

Road vehicle steering automation is an essential part of any kind of application that involves autonomous driving or navigation. Vehicle manufacturers can perform this automatic control because they have access to the vehicle control unit and the internal communication bus. However, this solution involves knowledge of communication protocols and a certain electronic architecture. This paper presents a device able to control the steering of a road vehicle without necessity of the intervention of human drivers. This device can be installed in any kind of vehicle independently of the kind of assistance of the steering only by attaching a single mechanical coupling element between the device and the steering column. The architecture of the device also allows switching between manual and automatic control electronically at any moment. The developed device can be used to support any kind of Advanced Driver Assistance System that requires automatic steering control up to autonomous driving.