Design of a force-feedback joystick for combined longitudinal and transverse control of highly automated ground vehicles

Abstract

With the legalization of steer-by-wire solutions for modern day production cars, it is possible to replace the conventional steering wheel with a joystick. The presented work illustrates the design boundary conditions necessary to consider in such a steering solution, namely force feedback system and ergonomic recommendations. The ergonomic factors include the joystick’s neutral position suitable for wrist, elbow and shoulder as well as the consideration of movement trajectories and repetitiveness of motion. Additionally, the maximum operation forces are presented. Based on the ergonomic findings, several concept ideas are given. Those concepts are assessed by multiple evaluators following the ranking method. Resulting from this assessment, a prototype is designed. The prototype combines the lateral operation of a conventional joystick with a linear axis for speed control. The prototype is connected to the virtual driving simulation program CarMaker with help of an Arduino Uno microcontroller and Matlab/Simulink. Therefore, it is possible to test the suitability of such a steering solution. The master thesis shows that it has advantages to steer a car with a joystick and that it is possible to control a virtual vehicle on a virtual replica of a track existing in real life using the developed joystick concept.