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The FMEA and DV&PV process of developing automotive products requires identifying and repeatedly testing critical vehicle attributes and their response to noise factors that may impair vehicle function. Ford has developed a new automated scripting tool to streamline in-vehicle robustness testing and produce more accurate and repeatable results. Similar noise factors identified during the FMEA process are grouped together, condensed, and scripts are developed to simulate these noise factors using calibration parameters and vehicle controls. The automated testing tool uses the API of a calibration software tool and a graphical scripting interface to consistently simulate driver inputs with greater precision than a human calibrator and enable more sophisticated controls, which would have previously required experimental software builds. The noise factor scripts are executed with minimal intervention from a human operator, and the collected data is analyzed to determine robustness.

Regenerative braking in hybrid electric vehicles is an essential feature to achieve the maximum fuel economy benefit of hybridization. During vehicle braking, the regenerative braking recuperates its kinetic energy, otherwise dissipated into heat due to friction brake, into electrical energy to charge the battery. The recuperation is realized by the driven wheels propelling, through the drivetrain, the electric motor as a generator to provide braking while generating electricity. “Rigid” connection between the driven wheels and the motor is critical to regenerative braking; otherwise the motor could drive the input of the transmission to a halt or even rotating in reverse direction, resulting in no hydraulic pressure for transmission controls due to the loss of transmission mechanical oil pump flow.

In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, Regenerative Braking is an essential function to convert vehicle kinetic energy into electrical energy, which charges the battery during a braking event to make a portion of captured kinetic energy available for use later. In comparison, conventional vehicles use friction brakes only and kinetic energy is dissipated as heat and not made available for later use. This paper introduces methods of evaluating Regenerative Braking Efficiency, including multiple efficiency definitions that lead to different attributes. The paper proposes regenerative brake event definitions during the FTP cycle and how they are used for control strategy and calibration updates. Also, we apply the efficiency metrics to four different vehicles from four automotive manufacturers for comparison. The paper presents a sample comparison result.