Advantages of an Innovative Crossed Four Bar Steering Mechanism of a Novel Vehicle

A crossed four-bar steering mechanism has been considered for a novel four-wheel vehicle which has different wheel locations compared to a conventional four-wheel vehicle. The present paper discusses the advantages of this newly proposed steering mechanism and the novel vehicle. The steering error curve of this novel vehicle has been compared with that of a conventional four-wheel vehicle having Ackermann steering. When both vehicles move on a curved road, the required angle of rotation of the vehicle wheels due to steering effort will be different and depend on the radius of curvature of the road from place to place. It has been found that the vehicle wheels of novel vehicle need to be rotated by smaller angle for steering. The steering error of the novel vehicle is far less. The swept path width will be reduced if the novel vehicle is used instead of the conventional vehicle.