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The earth's fossil energy is not limitless, and we should be taking advantage of the highly developed fields of science and technology to utilize it more efficiently and to create a fully environmentally friendly life. Considering the prodigious amount of vehicles in the world today, even a small improvement in their energy-saving performance could have a significant impact. In this paper, a new type of electro-hydraulic power steering (EHPS) system is described. It has two main advantages. First, it can significantly decrease the demand on the motor so that it can be used for a wider range of vehicles. Second, its pressure-flow characteristic can be programmed and is more flexible than hydraulic power steering (HPS) system. A prototype with a 500 W motor was applied to a truck with a front load of 2,700 kg, and static steer sweep tests were conducted to validate its feasibility.

Many types of brake by wire systems have been developed in past years, such as EMB (Electro-mechanical Brake) [1, 2], DEHB (Distributed Electro-hydraulic Braking System) [3] and EWB (Electric Wedge Brake) [4]. When the vehicle need braking in long period such as waiting for traffic light or downhill braking in those brake systems, the current will sustain very long time with very high level. This current will result in high temperature in motor, and will damage the power supplier. When a new DEHB is developing, a holding function is added in this DEHB. The holding function is self-energized when holding the brake, and automatic released after the brake. Advantageously, after activation of the holding function, the current delivered to the motor for braking is substantially decreased, especially, will be zero when the brake torque is not need to adjust.

This paper presents a new magnetorheological braking which can be used in vehicles. Magneto-rheological (MR) fluid is a novel material which can be used in different components of vehicle. Magneto-rheological fluids (MRF) are suspensions of micron size whose yield stress varies rapidly as the change of magnetic field. The use of MRF in vehicles has been gaining popular recently due to its strong rheological effect, fast response and low energy consumption. Besides, these performances give designers more choice in automotive designs. However, most of the related research of MRF brake is about the construction of small prototype to verify its rheological performance. As a result, research progress is limited to calculation and simulation which make the braking force of prototype can hardly meet the requirement of vehicle due to a lack of optimal design and the understanding of MRF in the situation of high sheer stress and magnetic field.