Steering Research Onboarding Task
- Caleb Nebiyou Mengistu
This steering onboarding task is designed for new members to complete before working on any steering research tasks.
Overview:
You are tasked with determining the optimal steering angle of the inner and outer wheels of our solar car. Using the bicycle kinematic model, you can calculate these steering angles by inputting the wheelbase, which is the distance between the front and back wheels of a car, the track, the distance between the left and right wheels, and the turning radius.
The bicycle kinematic model takes the complex 3D geometry of a car and simplifies it into a 1D “line”. By creating a triangle with the turning radius and the wheelbase, you can get the inverse tan of said triangle to get the steering angle. This works for a bicycle, motorcycle, scooter, or any two wheel connected on the same forward axis. This can be extrapolated to get the Ackermann kinematic model of a 4 wheeled car
The end result should be two equations that get the inner and outer steering angles based on track, wheelbase and turning radius.
If you’d like more information, the video below goes over the bicycle kinematic model, but more in depth. Vehicle Dynamics & Control - 09 Dynamic bicycle model with linear tires
Workflow
First, using paper or any electronic notes, write down the equations needed for inner and outer steering, and create a diagram for the bicycle and Ackermann kinematic model
Then, create a MATLAB script that takes track, wheelbase and turning radius and outputs the inner and outer steering angle.
If you have any questions, ask @Caleb Nebiyou Mengistu for help.
MATLAB
Download MATLAB here, use your student email:
You can take this onramp course to gain proficiency for this script or future projects/tasks:
MATLAB Onramp | Self-Paced Online Courses - MATLAB & Simulink