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Forward Collision Warning (FCW) and Lane Departure Warning (LDW) systems are two active safety systems that have recently been added to the U.S. New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) evaluation. Vehicles that pass confirmation tests may advertise the presence of FCW and LDW alongside the vehicle's star safety rating derived from crash tests. This paper predicts the number of crashes and injured drivers that could be prevented if all vehicles in the U.S. fleet were equipped with production FCW and/or LDW systems. Models of each system were developed using the test track data collected for 16 FCW and 10 LDW systems by the NCAP confirmation tests. These models were used in existing fleetwide benefits models developed for FCW and LDW. The 16 FCW systems evaluated could have potentially prevented between 9% and 53% of all rear-end collisions and prevented between 19% and 60% of injured (MAIS2+) drivers. Earlier warning times prevented more warnings and injuries.

During the last years mechatronic systems developed into one of the biggest drivers of innovation in the automotive industry. The start of production of systems like dual clutch transmission, lane departure warning systems and active suspensions proves this statement. These systems have an influence on the longitudinal, steering and vertical dynamics of the vehicle. That is why the interaction on vehicle level is crucial for an optimal result in the fields of efficiency, comfort, safety and dynamics. To optimize the interaction of mechatronic systems, in this paper a new test rig concept for a complete vehicle is presented. The so-called Car-in-the-Loop-concept is capable of realistically reproducing the loads, which act on the powertrain, the steering and the suspension during a test drive.

This study undertakes an investigation of the effect of battery charge balance in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) on EPA fuel economy label values. EPA's updated method was fully implemented in 2011 and uses equations which weight the contributions of fuel consumption results from multiple dynamometer tests to synthesize city and highway estimates that reflect average U.S. driving patterns. For the US06 and UDDS cycles, the test results used in the computation come from individual phases within the overall certification driving cycles. This methodology causes additional complexities for hybrid vehicles, because although they are required to be charge-balanced over the course of a full drive cycle, they may have net charge or discharge within the individual phases. As a result, the fuel consumption value used in the label value calculation can be skewed.

A unique concept for a multi-body test rig enabling the simulation of longitudinal, steering and vertical dynamics was developed at the Institute for Mechatronic Systems (IMS) at TU Darmstadt. A prototype of this IMS test rig is currently being built. In conjunction with the IMS test rig, the Vehicle Terrain Performance Laboratory (VTPL) at Virginia Tech further developed a full car, seven degree of freedom (7 DOF) simulation model capable of accurately reproducing measured displacement, pitch, and roll of the vehicle body due to terrain excitation. The results of the 7 DOF car model were used as the reference input to the multi-body IMS test rig model. The goal of the IMS/VTPL joint effort was to determine whether or not a controller for the IMS test rig vertical actuator could accurately reproduce wheel displacements due to different measured terrain constraints.

With advances in virtual prototyping, accurate digital modeling of driving posture is regarded as a fundamental step in the design of ergonomic driver-seat-cabin systems. Extensive work on driving postures has been carried out focusing on the measurement and prediction of driving postures and the determination of comfortable joint angle ranges. However, studies on postural sensitivity are scarce. The current study investigated whether a driver-selected posture actually represents the most preferred one, by comparing the former with ratings of postures selected at 20 predefined places around the original hip joint center (HJC). An experiment was undertaken in a lab setting, using two distinctive driving package geometries: one for a sedan and the other for an SUV. The 20 postural ratings were compared with that of the initial user-selected position.

The Institute for Mechatronic Systems in Mechanical Engineering (IMS) designed a concept for a test rig, which enables the simulation of longitudinal, steering and vertical dynamics for a complete vehicle under laboratory conditions. The main part of the test rig concept is a shaft, which contains three constant velocity joints and two ball-spline supported length compensations. It connects the wheel hub of the test car to an electric motor. In addition a linear actuator is mounted to the middle part of the shaft and a hydraulic actuator replaces the suspension strut. These actuators can load the longitudinal, steering and vertical degree of freedom of the test car according to simulated driving maneuvers. A prototype of this concept is being built at the IMS lab. Beginning with a precise explanation of the test rig concept this paper discusses the control strategy for the rotational speed of the wheel hub of the car mounted on the test rig based on a simulation.

The “Two-Drive-Transmission with Range-Extender” (called DE-REX) is an innovative hybrid powertrain concept using two electric motors and an internal combustion engine. The two electric motors are permanent magnet synchronous motors with a maximum power of 48 kW each. As combustion engine a 3 cylinder, turbocharged engine with a power of 65 kW is used. The aggregates are coupled to a transmission whose layout is characterized by consisting of two parallel 2-speed sub-transmissions. This layout offers a high flexibility and enables both parallel and series hybrid driving. The hybrid control unit (HCU) has to select the optimal driving mode and power distribution between the aggregates in regard to in some extend competing objectives like efficiency, emissions or driving comfort. In particular, the operation of the internal combustion engine with only two gear ratios is challenging.

In this investigation an innovative signal generator will be introduced, which enables the generation of transient control signals for the gearshift process. The signals are generated merely depending on scalar transmission control unit (TCU) calibration parameters. The signal generator replaces the comprehensive TCU software within the simulation environment. Thus no extensive residual bus simulation is required. Multiple experimental models represent the core part of the signal generator. To predict the system behavior of the underlying system, the models are trained using measured data from a powertrain with automatic transmission mounted on a test rig. The results demonstrate that the introduced signal generator is suitable to predict transient control signals for the gearshift operation accurately. In combination with an additional powertrain model it is possible to simulate the gearshift process and subsequently to evaluate the gearshift comfort.