Electric Power Assisted Steering
Mechanical engineering students Chris Caldwell, Russell Golden, and Heather Moccia have completed a design project under the direction of Dr. Peters (Physics), Drs. Metz & Palmer (Mechanical Engineering), and Drs. Collins and Paul (Electrical Engineering). In this senior project they designed and later built a system designed to replace the conventional hydraulic based power assisted steering unit. The electric power assisted steering (EPAS) measures torque by means of a torsion rod and a specially tailored version of symmetric differential capacitive (SDC) sensor.
More information concerning this work is to be found in Mercer University's research publication, Discoveries (requires Adobe Acrobat reader--download pages 24-32, 1.32 Mbytes)