Help! Building a steering wheel system for truck driving training

msupkf · Feb 17, 2020

Guys, howdy!

A noob here. I was given a task of developing a steering wheel system to be used for simulated truck driving training.

I'm going to retrofit a steering wheel by attaching a motor into it and making a suitable stand for the trainee.

Requirements:
1) torque control based on steering wheel angle and simulated speed.
2) max torque around 10Nm
3) max steering wheel rpm around 300rpm
4) steering wheel rotation 900 degrees
5) software will be developed in-house but I need to provide hardware interface (eg 24VDC input, pwm?, encoder data?)

Questions:

1) which type of motor to use? stepper, brushed DC motor, or BLDC?
2) which type of encoder to attach to the motor? this encoder is for providing steering wheel position to the software

I'm thinking of using: AccuForce Wheel DIY Kit

but I don't think its software can provide data to our own custom-made software (which will interface with Ethercat industrial communication system).

Thank in advance!