Abstract
The steering reactive torque of an automobile is one of the important information for a driver to judge the vehicle behavior and road conditions. This paper describes an empirical model of a friction characteristics of a steering gear for a steering torque simulator. In order to evaluate the friction characteristics, the authors conducted a test using the steering gear of the experimental vehicle. The friction characteristics were evaluated to the angular velocity and the rack force. Moreover, a curved surface approximation were performed to the experimental results using a spline surface, and the most suitable friction model of the steering gear was examined by changed a control point and an order of a spline surface.
