1

Mixed-Objective H2/H Control for an Electric

Power Assist Steering using LMI Optimization
V.Sankaranarayan, Ismail Hussain and Dincer Kournazausa

AbstractThis paper presents a design of dynamic controller

for a MIMO Electric power assist steering EPAS system using
Linear Matrix Inequality(LMI) Optimization. Double-piniontype steering system is considered for analysis and its dynamics is
developed using Lagrangian dynamics.A state-space formulation
is used that includes driver torque and road disturbance as
exogenous input and steering column torque as measurable
output.Mixed-objective H2 /H controller synthesis is used for
steering feel and motor assist performance.The simulation results
justified that EPAS performance and steering feel is improved
using dynamic controller.
Index TermsElectric power assist steering (EPAS),Linear
Matrix Inequality.

I. I NTRODUCTION

ECENT advances in electrical technology allow us to

use electric motor for controlling the steering contrary
to the traditional hydraulic power steering system. Electric
power assist steering(EPAS) system have high fuel efficiency
and low maintenance cost. This paper analysis Double-pinion
configuration used on heavy vehicles .Dynamic Controller
is developed using LMI Optimization . Many engineering
optimization problem can be solved using LMI,various computationally difficult optimization can be solved effectively
by LMI.LMI Optimization is solved using Yalmip. Steering
feel issues and performanceis minimized using H and H2
respectively.Various controller is designed using various combination of steering feel and assist performance issue and the
performance is compared.The simulation results proves the
robust nature and improved performance of the system with
controller.

p
Jc c + Bc c + Kc (c ) = Td
rp
+ Km (m
Jm m + Bm m

Mr p + Br p + Kt p =

Gp
) = ki
rp

(1)

(2)

Kc
p
GKm
Gp
(c ) +
(m
) + Fd (3)
rp
rp
rp
rp

Equation (1) describes steering column dynamics. Equation

(2) models the motor mechanical dynamics. k is the motor
torque constant.Equation (1) describes steering rack dynamics.
The dc motor dynamics is given by:

Li + Ri + k m

= v

(4)

where L is the inductance of motor in stator winding, R is

the winding resistance, and v is the motor terminal voltage.
III. S TATE -S PACE F ORMULATION
The EPAS system described above can be expressed as state
space equations as shown below:

x = Ax + B1w + Bu
z = C1x + D1w + Eu
y = Cx + F w + Du

(5)
(6)
(7)

II. M ODELING OF EPAS SYSTEM

The model of a double-pinion-type EPAS system (Fig.
1) is discussed in [1] but in these paper we include tire
disturbance force. In Fig.1, Td and Tm represent driver torque
on the steering column and the torque applied by the assist
motor, respectively. Kc and Bc represent the steering column
torsional stiffness and steering column damping, respectively.
Mr and Br represent rack and wheel assembly mass and rack
damping respectively, Kt is the tire or rack centering spring
rate and Km and Bm are the motor and gearbox torsional
stiffness and damping respectively. The motor gearbox gear
ratio is represented by G. c ,m the angular position of the
steering column , the motor shaft respectively, the rack position
p, and tire disturbance force Fd .
The equations of motion for the double-pinion-type EPAS
system is obtained using Lagrangian Dynamics.

where w is exogenous input such as driver torque and tire

disturbancew = [Td , Fd ]0 ,z regulated output,y is measurable
output,u is control input and x is states of the system. x =
, xr , xr , i]0 . The assist motor terminal voltage
[c , c , m , m
is considered as the input the system,u = [v]. The steering
column angular position,c is considered to be the output of
the system. The system matrix is given below

0
1
0
0
0
0
0
Kc
Kc Bc
0
0
0
0
rp

rp
Jc rp
0
0
0
1
0
0
0

Km
Bm
Km G
k
0
0
A= 0
rp
rp
Jm rp
Jm

0
0
0
0
0
1
0

Kc
Km G
Br
Mr rp
0
0

0
Mr rp
Mr
k
R
0
0
0
0
0
L
L

Kc
Km G
t
where = ( K
Mr + Mr rp2 + Mr rp2 )

0
0
0
0
1

J
0
c

, B1 = 0
0
B=

0
0

0
0
1
0
L

C=

0
0
0
0

xc
u

1
Mr
0
0

such that the closed-loop system is stable. Assuming that

the dimension of the controller state vector xc is the same as
that of the system itself, the following theorem gives necessary
and sufficient conditions for the existence of such controllers:

, D = (0)


IV. D ESIGN A PPROACH

A linear time invariant system can be described as

x
z1
z2
..
.

zn
y

A
C1
C2
..
.

=


Cn
C

B1
D11
D21
..
.

B2
D12
D22
..
.

..
.

Dn1
F1

Dn2
F2

Dnn
Fn

Bn
D1n
D2n
..
.

B
E1
E2
..
.

x
w1
w2
..
.

En wn
D
u

where u is the control input, y the measured output available

for control, w1 , w2 ....wn are disturbance inputs to the system
and z1 , z2 ....zn are the regulated outputs.
A controller is any finite dimensional linear time-invariant
system described as

 


xc
Ac Bc
xc
=
u
Cc Dc
y
that has y as its input and produces the u as its output.
Controllers are hence simply parameterized by the matrices
Ac, Bc, Cc and Dc in which the dimensions of the matrices
are compatible with the dimensions of u and y.
The controlled or closed-loop system then admits the description



=

A
C

B
D



Dynamic state feedback is the case where the controller has

access to the states, This gives

A
C

B
D

A + BDc C
Bc C
=
C1 + EDc C

BCc
Ac
ECc

= Ac xc + Bc y
= Cc xc + Dc y

B1 + BDc F

Bc F
D1 + EDc F

The transfer function of the controlled system is

Ys
= C(sI A) B + D
Us

(8)

A. Stabilization via Dynamic output feedback

The dynamic output feedback controller synthesis problem
is one of finding a controller given by the state-space description

AX + XAT + BF + F T B T
A + BHC + LT
T
? A Y + Y A + GC + C T GT


X I
>0
I Y
In this case, the controller matrices can be obtained as

D
c

Cc

B
c
Ac

=
=
=
=

where
Dc
Cc
Bc
Ac

H
F X 1 HC
Z 1 (G Y BH)
Z 1 Y (A + BHC + BCc ) Bc C Z 1 LX 1
Z = Y X 1 > 0

or, as

= H
= (F HCX)S 1
= BH Y 1 G
= (A + BHC + Bc C)XS 1 + BCc Y 1 LS 1

where

S = X Y 1 > 0

B. Mixed-Objective H2 /H controller synthesis

To find a controller such that A is Hurwitz and
||C (sI A) B + D || <

(9)

||C (sI A) B + D || <

(10)

LMI formulation is given in page.

In this paper z1 is steering column torque (Tc ) which is
given by
p
(11)
Tc = Kc (c )
rp
Minimizing ||Tc ||2 implies that most of the effort is given
by motor. z2 is taken as driver feel issue where a part of
disturbance force is completely transferred to steering wheel.
Kc (c
Tc
n1 = Fd
= Fd
rp
rp

p
rp )

(12)

where is proportional constant which can be used to tune

the driver feel issue.


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