Active vehicle systems integrate electromechanical actuators and advanced control strategies to improve driving comfort and safety.

Their development requires coordinated mechanical, electrical, and software design, supported by early evaluation of system performance and driver acceptance.

The automotive industry accelerates the development process by adopting multi-stage simulation workflows, from Model-in-the-Loop to hardware-in-the-loop and track testing, progressively reducing the virtualization level.

Final testing stages require actuators with programmable control units, often unavailable in commercial products.

This paper proposes a research-oriented steering actuator based on the modification of an existing system by introducing an additional torque sensor after the steering wheel.

Results indicate that the additional compliance significantly alters the passive steering response, while the impact on active EPS operation is negligible, confirming the suitability of the modified actuator for experimental research applications.