Objective Drivability Evaluation on Compact SUV and Comparison with Subjective Drivability 2017-26-0153

Over the ages of automotive history, expectations of the customers increases vastly starting from driving comfort, better fuel economy and a safe vehicle. Requirement of good vehicle drivability from customers are increasing without any compromise of fuel economy and vehicle features. To enhance the product, it is a must for every OEM’s to have better drivability to fulfill the needs of the customer.

This paper explains Objective Drivability Evaluation done on compact SUV vehicle and comparison with subjective drivability. Vehicle manufacturer usually evaluate drivability based on the subjective assessments of experienced test drivers with a sequence of certain maneuvers. In this study, we have used the objective drivability assessment tool AVL drive to obtain the vehicle drivability rating. The vehicle inputs from the accelerometer sensor which captures the longitudinal acceleration and CAN bus signals such as engine speed, vehicle speed, accelerator pedal, are fed into the software. Defined test maneuvers are performed on a test track and the real time data is recorded through Drive main unit. Data post processing is done using the software which works based on the fuzzy logic techniques and converts in terms of drivability rating with the help of neuronal network. Software gives the objective ratings based on the in-built database consist of class of vehicle and type of transmission. Subjective drivability evaluation is done on the same vehicle with expert jury drivers to study the correlation with objective ratings.

Observed good correlation between objective and subjective evaluation. Additionally, objective method of evaluation gives direct focus on area of improvement with the help of micro level analysis on objective data