ZF introduces ReAX Electronic Steering System to Heavy Truck Market

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Heavy Duty Trucking  /  August 18, 2017

ZF is bringing its "ReAX" electronic steering system to the North American commercial vehicle market. The company demonstrated the system at a press conference at its Commercial Vehicle Technology Center in Lafayette, Indiana, last week.

ZF first introduced the product into the recreational vehicle market in 2006 and the global coach and bus market a couple of years later. Since then, ZF engineers have continuously upgraded ReAX as other new vehicle technologies have come on line. Today, the system can fully integrate with a host of advanced vehicle systems, including camera, radar, lidar and other advanced safety system and adaptive cruise control enablers, as well as emerging autonomous vehicle control systems.

In fact, in its current form, ReAX is a Level 2 autonomous vehicle control system designed to assist drivers, boost safety and vehicle control while reducing stress and fatigue.  

Here’s how it works: ReAX features an array of sensors that continuously monitor any incoming telemetry related to how the truck is being steered at both highway speeds and in low-speed maneuvering situations.

Watch Jack Roberts try out the ReAX in person in this HDT On the Spot video.

The easiest way to grasp the ReAX concept is to think of the system as an electronic steering control system that boosts a truck’s hydraulic steering pump output. But there’s so much more to the system than that. According to Mark Cartwright, global product marketing planning manager for ZF, ReAX is a steering-proportional control, which means that it adjusts how it augments power steering pump output based on actual driver needs. In low-speed situations, Reax lightens up steering resistance to help drivers quickly act and react when maneuvering, backing or docking. At highway speeds, the system tightens up steering resistance to give a driver better feel and precision control in holding a lane.

But that’s just the beginning: The system is, as its name suggested, also reactive. This means that it can read specific situational demands and make adjustments accordingly. In low-speed maneuvers, it automatically returns the steering wheel to top dead center if the driver removes his or her hand from the wheel. This, Cartwright said, takes all the guesswork out of getting the wheels straight when backing or docking.

But at highway speeds, ReAX responds to help drivers deal with crosswinds or crowns in the road that can force them to hold constant pressure on the wheel in order to keep the truck in its lane. In those instances, ReAX notes the wheel input and force being exerted on the wheel by the driver and automatically compensates for the difference within a minute or so. In other words, it compensates for the external forces trying to push the truck off its desired steering track and holds the correct course for the driver automatically. This, Cartwright explained, reduces driver fatigue while increasing overall safety for the driver.

ReAX works in other ways as well. If the truck is fitted with a lane departure warning system, it can help eliminate drift in the lane by reading telemetry off the safety system cameras and other systems. If ReAX senses drift toward one lane marking or the other, it can gently nudge the truck back to its correct position in the center of the lane.

Additionally, at highway cruise speeds, when little or no hydraulic system output is needed to handle limited steering wheel movements, ReAX can take over steering control augmentation and allow the steering pump hydraulic pressure to drop to zero flow. This reduces parasitic drag on the engine, Cartwright says, and can add an additional 1.5% boost in vehicle fuel economy when cruising at highway speeds.

Hands-on Impressions

ZF engineers had a cone course set up behind its Commercial Vehicle Technology Center in order to allow wheel time to see how the ReAX system worked in low-speed situations. (Highway drives were not available at the press event.)

Driving a Peterbilt Model 579 tractor, I was able to whip the truck through repeated laps on a Figure-8 course using only my index finger to turn the wheel as needed. Another course had me taking a Volvo VHD dump truck over a series of aggressive speed bumps. AF engineers could turn ReAX on and off on command, in order to give a sense of how the system can pick up on impact forces from potholes and instantaneously counteract those forces before they get to the steering wheel or the driver. As promised, running over the speed bumps with the system engaged dampened those impact forces so thoroughly, I could take my hand completely off the steering going over the speed bumps while it tracked straight and true.

ZF is currently meeting with various truck OEMs and fleets to demonstrate Reax technology and its benefits and hopes to have the system available as either optional or standard equipment in the near future.

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The ReAX electronic steering system was first introduced in April 2013 as "Volvo Dynamic Steering". Volvo's promotion gave the impression that it was Volvo technology, however it was actually developed by Germany's ZF. Under their agreement, Volvo was the exclusive user for the first 5 years. That time now having expired, ZF is free to sell the system to all truckmakers.

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ZF brings electrically-assisted hydraulic steering to trucking

Fleet Owner  /  August 21, 2017

ZF says its ReAX steering technology will take some of the physical burden off commercial truck drivers.

LAFAYETTE, IN. Though fully autonomous trucks still have a long way to go, driver-assistive and autonomous technologies remain hot topics throughout the industry. How can fleets and owner operators leverage some of the existing and upcoming technologies to improve safety and their overall business operations? ZF Commercial Vehicle believes it has a solution.

Coming soon to the commercial truck market: ZF Commercial Vehicle last week announced its ReAX steering technology will be available for heavy trucks starting next year. ZF made the announcement at its Lafayette plant Aug. 18, where it hosted a ride and drive event for the media to test out the system on different applications.

ReAX is column-mounted electrically assisted hydraulic steering that uses sensors to determine driving conditions and then controls an electric motor to provide the appropriate torque feedback to the driver. According to ZF representatives, the technology helps increase safety and reduce driver fatigue by compensating for crosswind, road crown, reduced efforts at low speed, and enhanced on-center handling at cruising speed.

Mitja Schulz, senior vice president of commercial vehicle technology, North America, explained that some of the major trends ZF customers often bring up are automated driving technologies and functionalities and improving fuel consumption and efficiency.

“Every one of these customers is somehow thinking about automated driving or what it takes to implement functions like lane keeping and emergency braking,” Schulz said. “That’s a huge topic in the industry. For us, the main driver is to offer functionalities that improve safety on the roads.”

Schulz added that over the next couple of years, the company intends to spend $200 million in the development of new autonomous driving technologies, sensors, and software. ReAX was initially introduced to the RV market in 2006 and expanded to the bus market in 2007-08. Now the technology is moving into the linehaul and vocational truck space.

Mark Cartwright, global product planning manager at ZF, sees the system as a key element for fleet driver recruitment and retention efforts. He explained ReAX was developed to eliminate uncertainty and reduce driver fatigue through simplified steering.

“The ease of steering makes it much easier to move in tight quarters, docking areas, etc., where a lot of minor accidents occur,” Cartwright said. “That just gives confidence to the driver and makes good drivers better.”

During the event, after driving vehicles with and without the system engaged, it is apparent that ReAX requires less force and work for the driver since the system knows where the steering is at all times. When the system is engaged, steering returnability improves and the wheel quickly returns itself back to center with little-to-no work from the driver.

According to the company, benefits include:

• Enhanced drivability and maneuverability

• Road crowning and crosswind compensation for safer operation at highway speeds

• Better handling and directional control in any adverse road conditions (potholes, bumps, etc.)

• Steering automatically returns to center easing operation

• Reduces driver fatigue

• Enables a larger recruiting pool of drivers

City Transit Bus, located across from ZF’s Lafayette plant, uses the ReAX system in its bus fleet. Marty Sennett is the general manager there.

“With the shortage of drivers, a lot of times we need drivers to work more than eight hours a day,” Sennett told Fleet Owner. “So if they’re not hurting physically, it’s much easier to get them to work overtime.”

“We had one driver who had neck and back surgery this summer, and if we had the old system, he’d be on disability right now,” Sennett added. “It saves the government a little money and hopefully us a little money, extend his career another 10 years until he’s ready to retire. So far, we found it to be a win-win situation.”

The ReAXe system will be available from several OEMs by next year.  

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