Abstract: In order to improve the safety of heavy-duty vehicles in the steering process, this paper proposes an active front wheel steering control strategy based on the sliding mode variable structure control. With this strategy in mind, an active steering controller is designed. A simplified vehicle dynamics model with two degrees of freedom and a model for a three-axle commercial vehicle are established. The co-simulation platform is built with TruckSim and Simulink, and the hardware-in-loop experiment is carried out. Under different working conditions and at different speeds, the steering stability analysis of the vehicle with or without the active steering controller is carried out. Based on this, the sensitivity analysis of the active steering influencing factors of the sliding mode variable structure control is carried out. The experimental results show that this controller strategy has a good adaptability under different working conditions.