Search Results

Autonomous driving systems and connected mobility are the next big developments for the car manufacturers and their suppliers during the next decade. To achieve the high computing power needs and fulfill new upcoming requirements due to functional safety and security, heterogeneous processor architectures with a mixture of different core architectures and hardware accelerators are necessary. To tackle this new type of hardware complexity and nevertheless stay within monetary constraints, high performance computers, inspired by state of the art data center hardware, could be adapted in order to fulfill automotive quality requirements. The European Processor Initiative (EPI) research project tries to come along with that challenge for next generation semiconductors. To be as close as possible to series development needs for the next upcoming car generations, we present a hybrid semiconductor system-on-chip architecture for automotive.

In this paper a method for the identification of most significant vehicle parameters influencing the behavior of a lateral control system of autonomous car is presented. Requirements for the design stage of the controller need to consider many uncertainties in the plant. While most vehicle properties can be compensated by an appropriate tuning of the control parameters, other vehicle properties can change significantly during usage. The control system is evaluated based on performance measures. Analyzed parameters comprise functional tire characteristics, mass of the vehicle and position of its center of gravity. Since the parameters are correlated, but Sobol’ sensitivity analysis assumes decorrelated inputs, random variation yields no reasonable results. Furthermore, the variation of each parameter or set of parameters is not applicable since the numbers of required simulations is increased significantly according to input dimension.

Current regulatory developments aim for stricter emission limits, increased environmental protection and purification of air on a local and global scale. In order to find solutions for a cleaner combustion process, it is necessary to identify the critical components and parameters responsible for the formation of emissions. This work provides an evaluation process for particle formation during combustion of a modern direct injection engine, which can help to create new aftertreatment techniques, such as a gasoline particle filter (GPF) system, that are fit for purpose. With the advent of “real driving emission” (RDE) regulations, which include market fuels for the particulate number testing procedure, the chemical composition and overall quality of the fuel cannot be neglected in order to yield a comparable emission test within the EU and worldwide.

Functional safe systems fulfilling the ISO 26262 standard are getting more important for automotive applications where additional redundant and diverse functionality is needed for higher rated ASIL levels. This can result in a very complex and expensive system setup. Here we present a sensor product developed according ISO 26262. This sensor product comprises a two channel redundant and also diverse implemented magnetic field sensor concept with linear digital outputs on one monolithically integrated silicon substrate. This sensor is used for ASIL D applications like power-steering torque measurement, where the torque is transferred into a magnetic field signal in a certain magnetic setup, but can also be used in other demanding sensor applications concerning safety. This proposed and also implemented solution is beneficial because of implementation on a single chip in one single chip-package but anyway fulfilling ASIL D requirements on system level.

A cooperation of several research partners supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education proposes a new active matrix LED light source. A multi pixel flip chip LED array is directly mounted to an active driver IC. A total of 1024 pixel can be individually addressed through a serial data bus. Several of these units are integrated in a prototype headlamp to enable advanced light distribution patterns in an evaluation vehicle.

A local Gaussian process regression approach is presented, which allows to model nonlinearities of internal combustion engines more accurate than global Gaussian process regression. By building smaller models, the prediction of local system behavior improves significantly. In order to predict a value, the algorithm chooses the nearest training points. The number of chosen training points depends on the intensity of estimated nonlinearity. After determining the training points, a model is built, the prediction performed and the model discarded. The approach is demonstrated with a benchmark system and air charge test bed measurements. The measurements are taken from a turbocharged SI gasoline engine with both variable inlet valve lift and variable inlet and exhaust valve opening angle. The results show how local Gaussian process regression outmatches global Gaussian process regression concerning model quality and nonlinearities in particular.

Air charge calibration of turbocharged SI gasoline engines with both variable inlet valve lift and variable inlet and exhaust valve opening angle has to be very accurate and needs a high number of measurements. In particular, the modeling of the transition area from unthrottled, inlet valve controlled resp. throttled mode to turbocharged mode, suffers from small number of measurements (e.g. when applying Design of Experiments (DoE)). This is due to the strong impact of residual gas respectively scavenging dominating locally in this area. In this article, a virtual residual gas sensor in order to enable black-box-modeling of the air charge is presented. The sensor is a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network. Amongst others, the physically calculated air mass is used as training data for the artificial neural network.

It has become an important trend to implement safety-related requirements in the road vehicles. Recent studies have shown that accidents, which occurred when drivers are not focused due to fatigue or distractions, can be predicted in advance when using safety features. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are used to prevent this kind of situation. Currently, many major tiers are using a DSP chip for ADAS applications. This paper suggests the migration from a DSP configuration to a Microcontroller configuration for ADAS application, for example, using a 32bit Multi-core Microcontroller. In this paper, the following topics will be discussed. Firstly, this paper proposes and describes the system block diagram for ADAS configuration followed by the requirements of the ADAS system. Secondly, the paper discusses the current solutions using a DSP. Thirdly, the paper presents a system that is migrated to a Multi-core microcontroller.

The electrification of the powertrain is still one of the main challenges and innovation drivers for modern cars. With the introduction of the Toyota Prius, launched in Japan in 1997 the first commercially available hybrid car in mass production, the development continued towards the BMW i3 launched in July 2013. One main component for all kind of hybrid cars is still the power semiconductor, which is used for DC/DC converters and for the inverter to drive the electric motor for the traction control. What makes the selection of the right power semiconductor complex, is the variety of different voltage levels within the car (from standard 12V board net, the new 48V board net all the way up to 400V and above) plus different requirements in terms of switching and conduction performance, or accordingly power losses. The selection of device by application and voltage will be discussed in this paper.

Glare-free high beams are a consistent enhancement of adaptive headlight systems for vehicles with advanced driver assist systems. A prerequisite for these are camera-based systems with the ability to recognize and classify objects such as vehicles in front or oncoming vehicles when driving at night. These objects can then be dynamically masked out of the high beam of the specially designed headlights. Since we are talking about moving objects, it is essential for the high beam to be continuously and dynamically adapted. This paper describes a modular LED matrix system for dynamically adjusting a glare-free and continuously active high beam. The main focus was on the modularity of the system and the optimization of the thermal properties of an LED matrix in order to ensure that operation was reliable under the harsh environmental conditions inside a headlight. Specific control electronics and different interconnection methods were examined.

The potential to reduce the cost of embedded software by standardizing the application behavior for Automotive Body and Comfort domain functions is explored in this paper. AUTOSAR, with its layered architecture and a standard definition of the interfaces for Body and Comfort application functions, has simplified the exchangeability of software components. A further step is to standardize the application behavior, by developing standard specifications for common Body and Comfort functions. The corresponding software components can be freely exchanged between different OEM/Tier-1 users, even if developed independently by multiple suppliers. In practice, individual OEM users may need to maintain some distinction in the functionality. A method of categorizing the specifications as ‘common’ and ‘unique’, and to configure them for individual applications is proposed. This allows feature variability by means of relatively simple adapter functions.

Nowadays, a continually growing system complexity due to the development of an increasing number of vehicle concepts in a steadily decreasing development time forces the engineering departments in the automotive industry to a deepened system understanding. The virtual design and validation of individual components from subsystems up to full vehicles becomes an even more significant role. As an answer to the challenge of reducing complete hardware prototypes, the virtual competence in NVH, among other methods, has been improved significantly in the last years. At first, the virtual design and validation of objectified phenomena in analogy to hardware tests via standardized test rigs, e.g. four poster test rig, have been conceived and validated with the so called MBS (Multi Body Systems).

Trans Tech recently debuted the all-electric eTrans school bus providing a total zero emission school bus. The presentation will demonstrate Smith Electric Vehicles and their history with electric vehicles. The presentation will help ensure that everybody has an idea of what the electric school bus will do and to dispel any rumors about the vehicle. Presenter Brian S. Barrington, Trans Tech. Bus

The BMW Group has introduced electric cars to the market with the MINI E already in 2009. The next step will be the launch of the BMW ActiveE in 2011, followed by the revolutionary Mega City Vehicle in 2013. The presentation will explain the BMW Group strategy for implementing sustainable mobility. A focus will be emobility, the use of carbon fiber and the holistic sustainability approach of BMW Group?s project i. Reference will be made to the research results of the MINI E projects in the US and in Europe. Presenter Andreas Klugescheid, BMW AG

The quality of the paint application in automotive industry depends on several process parameters. Thus, finding an optimal solution based on experimental configuration is tedious and time consuming. A first step to reduce the effort is to model the application within the framework of a simulation environment. In this study, we present an approach for the systematic variation of design parameters of the paint process to quantify their influence on the quality of the paint application. Using that information the design space is reduced by neglecting the parameters with low impact and later used to predict an optimal set of input parameters for an optimal paint application.

Today the majority of power electronics is developed based on the requirements set by the main fields of application e.g. power generation, power supply, industrial drive and traction. With introduction to automotive applications new requirements have to be taken into account. This paper discusses how interconnection technologies for power semiconductors can be improved to meet the demand for higher temperature capability in HEV applications.

Handling characteristics, ride comfort and active safety are customer relevant attributes of modern premium vehicles. Electronic control units offer new possibilities to optimize vehicle performance with respect to these goals. The integration of multiple control systems, each with its own focus, leads to a high complexity. BMW and ITK Engineering have created a tool to tackle this challenge. A simulation environment to cover all development stages has been developed. Various levels of complexity are addressed by a scalable simulation model and functionality, which grows step-by-step with increasing requirements. The simulation environment ensures the coherence of the vehicle data and simulation method for development of the electronic systems. The article describes both the process of the electronic control unit (ECU) development and positive impact of an integrated tool on the entire vehicle development process.

The paper will give an introduction to the principle of the giant magneto resistive - GMR - effect and the silicon system integration of GMR sensors. The two main applications of a GMR as a magnetic field strength sensor and as an angular field direction sensor will be discussed under consideration of automotive requirements. The typical applications of a magnetic field strength GMR sensor in incremental position and speed sensing and those of GMR angular field sensors in position sensing will be summarized. Finally advantages of GMR in those applications will be discussed and conclusions on the use of GMR in automotive sensing will be drawn.

As the demand for enhanced comfort, safety and differentiation with new features continues to grow and as electronics and software enable most of these, the number of electronic units or components within automobiles will continue to increase. This will increase the overall system complexity, specifically with respect to the number of controller actuators such as e-motors. However, hard constraints on cost and on physical boundaries such as maximum power dissipation per unit and pin-count per unit/connector require new solutions to alternative system partitioning. Vehicle manufacturers, as well as system and semiconductor suppliers are striving for increased scalability and modularity to allow for most cost optimal high volume configurations while featuring platform reuse and feature differentiation. This paper presents new semiconductor based approaches with respect to technologies, technology mapping and assembly technologies.

This paper will outline the results of a study performed to analyze the market introduction of x-by-wire applications in the context of weak global industry environment, technological and legislative challenges, standardization issues and end customer benefits. This paper attempts to provide a bird-view on influence factors and impacts for the x-by-wire market, including e.g. the end customer's acceptance and legal environment driving further development in specific areas. Further, major driving forces on semiconductor/component level will be outlined regarding e.g. pin-count, computation performance and heat dissipation, but also possible scenarios and solutions towards safe and efficient system design and partitioning.