The invention relates to a method for providing vehicle steering support by differential wheel braking, the vehicle comprising: at least two axles with at least two wheels per axle; a braking system allowing individual braking of the wheels; and means for determining and/or estimating an operator input torque applied on a steering wheel, wherein the vehicle is configured with a positive scrub radius; the method comprising the steps of: identifying a need for steering support; determining a braking value required for achieving the needed steering support based on an integration of a function of at least one input value (T.sub.input) related to a determined or estimated operator input torque; and controlling the braking system based on the determined braking value.

A method can be used to control a steer-by-wire steering system for a motor vehicle that has two axles each with two wheels. Two front wheels can be steered by front-wheel steering and two rear wheels can be steered by rear-wheel steering. The motor vehicle includes a single wheel drive that is assigned to one of the two axles and drives the two wheels of the corresponding axle via a differential. The motor vehicle comprises an inboard braking system. The method involves checking the motor vehicle speed and activating rear-axle steering when a motor vehicle speed should be slower than 40 km/hr. With rear-axle steering active, the following steps are performed: deactivating front-wheel steering and rear-wheel steering, determining a reference position of a first steering rod via a reference wheel steering angle, determining a differential drive torque between the rear wheels to reach the reference position via a control unit.

The turning radius of a differentially steered vehicle towing a trailer is controlled when turning so that its turning radius is greater than a minimum allowable turning radius. The turning radius may be autonomously adjusted using a controller to monitor the instantaneous rotational speed differential between the driven wheels and increase or decrease the relative speed between the wheels when the instantaneous rotational speed differential exceeds a threshold rotational speed differential, indicating a turn which is too tight. Alternately, the turning radius may be controlled by the vehicle's operator, who receives a signal from the controller indicating that the vehicle's turning radius is less than the minimum allowable. The operator may then take action to enlarge the turning radius using manual controls.

A steer-by-wire steering system for a motor vehicle with a steerable front wheel axle that has two steerable wheels. The front wheel axle includes a single wheel drive which, by means of a drive controller, individually drives wheel drives which are associated with the steerable wheels. The drive controller has a controller which determines a target speed for the left-hand wheel and a target speed for the right-hand wheel in accordance with an accelerator pedal angle and a rotational angle of a steering shaft, and which limits the target speeds to a slip-limited speed. The drive controller individually drives the wheel drives in such a way that the difference between the target speed and the actual speed for each steerable wheel is minimal.

A method of inspection or maintenance of a curved ferromagnetic surface using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) having a releasable crawler is provided. The method includes: flying the UAV from an initial position to a pre-perching position in a vicinity of the ferromagnetic surface; autonomously perching the UAV on the ferromagnetic surface; maintaining magnetic attachment of the perched UAV to the ferromagnetic surface; releasing the crawler from the magnetically attached UAV onto the ferromagnetic surface; moving the crawler over the curved ferromagnetic surface while maintaining magnetic attachment of the released crawler to the ferromagnetic surface; inspecting or maintaining the ferromagnetic surface using the magnetically attached crawler; and re-docking the released crawler with the perched UAV.

A system for controlling stop of a vehicle includes a steering angle comparison device that detects a current steering angle of the vehicle and compares the detected current steering angle with a preset limit steering angle when a malfunction of a steering system in the vehicle is detected during autonomous driving, a partial braking induction determination device that determines a position of a tire of the vehicle to be subjected to partial braking for steering control of the vehicle according to a result of the comparing between the current steering angle and the limit steering angle, and a partial braking control device that determines an amount of braking to be applied to each determined tire of the vehicle and applies a braking pressure corresponding to the amount of braking to each tire of the vehicle to perform the steering control by the partial braking.

A steering system for a mower can include a wheel-specific driving unit for each wheel and a controller for providing control signals to each wheel-specific driving unit to thereby cause each wheel to be independently rotated at a different speed during a turn. By independently rotating each wheel, the mower can complete a turn without damaging the grass. The controller may also provide control signals to cause each steerable wheel to be positioned in a different wheel direction during the turn.

A differential cooperative active steering system for a front-axle independent-drive vehicle with electric wheels includes a steering rack which is arranged between a first steering wheel and a second steering wheel, and is able to generate lateral displacement and pull the first and second steering wheels to steer; a planetary gear mechanism, including a first input end, a second input end and an output end; a steering angle coupling motor, connected to the first input end; and an input shaft of the steering wheel, connected to the second input end. The planetary gear mechanism can realize the coupling between an input steering angle of an input shaft of the steering wheel and an input steering angle of the steering angle coupling motor. In addition, a method for controlling the differential cooperative active steering system is provided.

An embodiment is a steering system including an in-wheel motor disposed on a wheel of a vehicle and configured to turn the wheel, a strut arm connecting the in-wheel motor and a vehicle body, a joint clutch on the vehicle body and configured to engage or disengage the strut arm to allow or disallow the strut arm to pivot about the vehicle body, and a controller configured to control the in-wheel motor and the joint clutch.

A system and method for differential traction drive and steering axis coordination for an autonomous mower or other turf device includes initiating a steering motion based on determining a target forward speed and a steering rotational speed, calculating a left wheel speed and a right wheel speed, and applying the left and right wheel speeds, wherein the steering rotational speed is driven by a steering motor and the traction wheels associated with the autonomous mower, and the left and right wheel speeds are based on the target forward speed, a distance from a steering axle to the center of the respective wheel, and the steering rotational speed.