Off-Road Vehicle with Redundant Non-Contact Multi-Revolution Angle Sensor

摘要

An off-road work vehicle has a steer-by-wire steering system having a device for determining the angular displacement of a steering wheel. The device has a cam configured to rotate about an axis at an identical angular speed as the steering wheel, a first sensor proximal to a facing outer surface of the cam and being configured to determine a distance between the first sensor and the facing outer surface of the cam, a second sensor proximal to a facing outer surface of the cam and being configured to determine a distance between the second sensor and the facing outer surface of the cam, and a processor operably connected with the first and second sensors and configured to determine an angular position of the steering wheel and a direction of rotation of the steering wheel based upon data generated by the first and/or the second sensor. The distance between each of the first and second sensors and the facing outer surface of the cam changes gradually over a first major portion of the facing outer surface and sharply over a second, minor portion of the facing outer surface. The two sensors are redundant to one another and help maintain the robustness of the system