Vehicle steering system having master/slave configuration and method therefor

A steer-by-wire steering system for a vehicle equipped with one or more road wheels, said system comprising:

• a road wheel actuator for actuating said road wheel;
• a position sensor for sensing angular position of a steerable road wheel;
• a hand-operated steering wheel for controlling directivity of said road wheel;
• a steering wheel sensor for sensing position of said steering wheel;
• a steering wheel actuator for actuating said hand-operated steering wheel;
• and
• a controller for receiving said sensed steering wheel position and said sensed road wheel position and calculating a road wheel control signal and a steering wheel control signal both as a function of the difference between said road wheel position and said steering wheel position, said controller commanding the road wheel actuator to provide controlled steering of the road wheel in response to said road wheel control signal, said controller further commanding the steering wheel actuator to provide force feedback actuation to the hand-operated steering wheel in response to said steering wheel control signal.

A method for steering a vehicle having a hand-operated steering wheel and one or more road wheels, said method comprising the steps of:

• sensing position of the hand-operated steering wheel;
• sensing position of a road wheel;
• calculating a control signal as a function of the difference between said sensed road wheel position and said sensed hand-operated steering wheel position;
• commanding actuation of the road wheel in response to said control signal to provide controlled steering of the road wheel;
• and
• commanding actuation to the hand-operated steering wheel in response to said control signal to provide force feedback to said hand-operated steering wheel.