Adaptive Dual-Mode Steer-by-Wire for Smart-City and Remote Operations: A Compact Mechatronic Review With a Python Simulation Framework

Steer-by-Wire (SbW) eliminates the mechanical steering column, enabling variable steering ratios, active haptic feedback, and seamless handover between human, remote, and automated control— capabilities that are central to smart-city logistics and remote/search-and-rescue (SAR) tasks. This review synthesises post-2020 advances in SbW mechatronics, control, teleoperation, and functional safety, with emphasis on low-cost prototyping and Python-based simulation. The work summarises actuator/gear and sensor choices; compares PID, robust/adaptive (e.g., sliding-mode, MPC), and haptic-feedback schemes; map teleoperation latency/jitter limits and mitigation; and examine ISO 26262 pathways for fail-operational steering when using non-automotive microcontrollers. It further proposes a lightweight, reproducible Python framework (python-control) to model the “bicycle” and higher-DOF vehicles, inject network delays/jitter, and evaluate safety monitors and redundancy. It is argued that dual-mode (manual↔teleop) SbW offers a pragmatic bridge to autonomy for smart-city fleets and SAR scenarios, provided latency budgets, safety cases, and fail-operational designs are validated via model-, software-, and hardware-in-the-loop