Crab-drive system to assist in parking and mobility in vehicles
Front wheel steering is our everyday experience and in some industrial machines we have rear wheel steering too. In fact, Rear-wheel steering have been available since the 80s.
CrabWalk or E-corner system is a 4-Wheel Steering setting that allows the angle of the rear wheels to mimic the angle of the front wheels up to a certain angle (10 degrees). This allows to move the vehicle diagonally.
It is helpful to move the vehicle diagonally in certain off-roading situations or to make some parking maneuvers easier.
By moving the vehicle diagonally with CrabWalk, we have the option of moving the vehicle to help avoid collisions with objects within our turning radius.
CrabWalk can only be used at certain speeds by different manufacturers like, below 20 mph. At speeds above 20 mph, the front and rear wheels will no longer turn at the same angle. If you continue to drive above 25 mph for longer than 10 seconds, CrabWalk will disengage and return the system to Automatic 4-Wheel Steering mode.
Hyundai, GMC and many other known producers are already in the race and still enhancing it!
Lane keep assistant and Trailering features such as Transparent Trailer, Articulation Angle Indicator, Jackknife Alert and certain sets of guidelines are unavailable with CrabWalk activated.
By Muhammad Umar
