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The objective of the research discussed in this paper is to propose a methodology for comparing candidate electrical architectures on a cost basis at the very beginning of the architecture design process. To achieve this objective, historical data concerning the cost of a wiring harness for a driver’s door electrical system is analysed along with information on an electrical architecture for the door system of a small four door passenger car. The study is focused around a driver’s door electrical system based on LIN and hardwired integration. However, it is concluded that the results are applicable to other types of automotive electrical architectures.

For a typical communications C-language software stack, its size in terms of ROM and RAM will be dependent upon the network properties such as number of nodes, schedules, messages and signals. A lot of this information is part of a more detailed design and during architecture selection only signal and nodal information will be available. Messages and schedule information will be part of a much more detailed part of the design process. The objective of the study described in this paper is to ascertain whether ROM and RAM requirements can be estimated from only node and signal information only as this is the information that tends to be available at the very beginning of the electrical architecture design process. Historical data from a LIN design and its associated communications stack is statistically analysed and used to develop a methodology for ROM and RAM requirement estimation.

An automotive side door latch release mechanism has been modelled for the locking and unlocking vehicle functionality in Dymola. The performance of the developed door lock model is evaluated against an existing model of a similar door locking/unlocking system in Stateflow. The model performance is also compared with measurements from a real vehicle door latch. The model is converted into a Simulink model and built for a real-time environment such as the dSPACE target with a fixed step size solver. It is shown that a step size as small as 1 ms can be used for real-time simulation without task overrunning in the real-time target. The model is also benchmarked on a multiprocessor setup as multiprocessor simulators are common in system-level networked Electronic Controller Unit (ECU) testing facilities for implementing high fidelity closed loop models of integrated ECUs and actuators.

The objective of the Project is to develop a low cost lead-acid battery solution for hybrid electric vehicles based on a novel, individual, spirally wound valve-regulated lead-acid 2V cell optimized for this application. This cell will be used as a building block for the development of a complete battery pack that is managed at the cell level. Following bench testing, this battery pack will be thoroughly evaluated by substituting it for the Nickel/Metal Hydride pack in a Honda Insight A paper given at the Future Car Congress in June 2002 covered the first half of the 3-year project and described work carried out in the following areas: Development of cell and battery testing facilities. The design and development of the prototype double-ended cell. The development of the battery pack specification and pack design. The development of the battery management system. It also gave details of the test results obtained on the demonstration vehicle with its original NiMH battery.

The Controller Area Network (CAN) has seen enormous success in automotive body and powertrain control systems, as well as industrial automation systems using higher layer protocols such as CANopen and DeviceNet. Now, the CAN standard ISO11898 is being extended to Time Triggered CAN (TTCAN) to address the safety critical needs of first generation drive-by-wire systems. However, their successful development depends upon the availability of silicon and software support, and appropriate development & analysis tools. Warwick Control Technologies and the University of Warwick are tasked with prototyping a TTCAN analyser within the European Union Media+ project Silicon Systems for Automotive Electronics (SSAE) consortium, and with funding from the British Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). This paper briefly outlines the current status of both CAN & TTCAN technology and describes the requirements of a TTCAN analyser over that of a traditional CAN analyser.

A low cost CAN bus load transducer, requiring only a few low cost components, has been developed. Traditionally, to ascertain CAN bus loading, an algorithm based upon a number of assumptions executed on a microcontroller is required. This has many disadvantages that include being potentially costly, inaccurate and can take up a significant amount of processing, especially under higher bus load situations causing a higher number of interrupts. However, the CAN bus load transducer developed, is connected to the CAN bus and outputs a varying signal proportional to bus loading. A microcontroller can then simply be used to read the bus load signal and covert it into percentage bus loading as often as is required. The method is inexpensive, accurate and provides a continuous signal for CAN bus loading measurement that does not become expensive in terms of processing under higher bus load conditions. In this paper, the application of the CAN bus load transducer technology is explored.

The Controller Area Network (CAN) has seen enormous success in automotive body and powertrain control systems. However, there is a change in emphasis arising in the industry in which CAN is seen as too powerful and expensive for simple digital body control applications, but not robust or fast enough for more safety critical applications such as the envisaged Drive-by-Wire systems of future passenger cars. The emerging protocols Local Interconnect Network (LIN), the Time Triggered Protocols (TTP/A, TTP/C), Time Triggered CAN (TTC) and Byteflight are examined in terms of their application and likelihood for future success. The paper is concluded with comments concerning a newly announced protocol known as FlexRay.

The objective of the Project is to develop an optimized lead-acid battery solution for HEVs based on a novel, individual, spirally wound valve-regulated lead-acid 2V cell optimized for HEV use and low variability. This cell will be used as a building block for the development of a complete battery pack that is managed at the cell level. Following bench testing, this battery pack will be thoroughly evaluated by substituting it for the NiMH pack in a Honda Insight. The paper covers the first half of the 3-year project and will describe work carried out in the following areas: Development of cell and battery testing facilities and identification of mechanisms causing cell lifetime scatter. The design and development of the prototype double-ended cell. The development of the battery pack specification and pack design. The development of the battery management system. The paper will also give details of the test results obtained on the demonstration vehicle with its original NiMH battery.

Sound quality targets for new vehicles are currently specified by jury evaluation techniques based upon listening studies in a sound laboratory. However, jury testing is costly, time consuming and at present there are no methods to include customer expectations or brand requirements. This paper describes a neural computing approach that is being developed to generate knowledge and tools to enable objective measures of a product's sound to be converted into a prediction of the subjective impression of potential customers without carrying out the traditional jury evaluation tests.

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations have long been used to test electronic control units (ECUs) and software in car manufacturers. It provides an effective platform to the rapid development process of the ECU control algorithms and accommodates the added complexity of the plant under control. Accurate Model based HIL simulation (AMHIL) is considered as a most efficient and cost effective way for exploration of new designs and development of new products, particularly in calibration and parameterization of vehicle stability controllers. The work presented in the paper is to develop a mathematical model of a windscreen wiper system for the purpose of conducting HIL vehicle test and eventually to replace the real component with the model for cost cutting and improved test efficiency. The model is developed based on the electro-mechanical engineering principles.

Robustness is particularly important in complex systems of systems due to emergent behaviour. This paper presents two novel, techniques developed as part of a framework for design for robustness of complex automotive electronic systems, but in principle could be applied to a broad range of distributed electronic systems. The overall framework is described to give the context of use for the techniques. The first technique is a “robustness case” which is a structured argument for the robustness of a system analogous to a safety case. The second is a model based approach to early robustness verification of complex systems. The approaches are demonstrated by their application to the system initialisation of the propulsion control system of a hybrid electric vehicle. The hybrid system initialisation process is discussed in terms of the key objectives and the technical implementation, illustrating the level of complexity underlying a simple high level requirement.

Complexity of electronics and embedded software systems in automobiles has been increasing over the years. This necessitates the need for an effective and exhaustive development and validation process in order to deliver fault free vehicles at reduced time to market. Model-based Product Engineering (MBPE) is a new process for development and validation of embedded control software. The process is generic and defines the engineering activities to plan and assess the progress and quality of the software developed for automotive applications. The MBPE process is comprised of six levels (one design level and five verification and validation levels) ranging from the vehicle requirements phase to the start of production. The process describes the work products to be delivered during the course of product development and also aligns the delivery plan to overall vehicle development milestones.

Increasing automation in the automotive systems has re-focused the industry’s attention on verification and validation methods and especially on the development of test scenarios. The complex nature of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADASs) and Automated Driving (AD) systems warrant the adoption of new and innovative means of evaluating and establishing the safety of such systems. In this paper, the authors discuss the results from a semi-structured interview study, which involved interviewing ADAS and AD experts across the industry supply chain. Eighteen experts (each with over 10 years’ of experience in testing and development of automotive systems) from different countries were interviewed on two themes: test methods and test scenarios. Each of the themes had three guiding questions which had some follow-up questions. The interviews were transcribed and a thematic analysis via coding was conducted on the transcripts.

A Rover car equipped with a Controller Area Network (CAN) system was tested for radio frequency susceptibilities in the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) chamber at Rover Gaydon Test Centre. The system consisted of four electronic control units linked together using a serial network (CAN) to share signal information. The car was configured in turn with two different types of twisted pair wire and a flat pair for the CAN data bus. Each type of wire was tested in the chamber at a range of frequencies and with various antenna positions. The CAN data was collected and stored on a commercially available personal computer (PC) based network analyzer for later analysis to determine bus latency under EMC error conditions.

This paper discusses the use of SLIO CAN technology for low speed (<125 Kbit/s) body control system. The architecture of SLIO as well as its benefits and shortcomings are explained and illustrated. A body control system utilising the SLIO CAN technology has been build to investigate the feasibility of its implementation. The flexibility in adding enhancement and fault tolerance feature to the system is also addressed. The prior knowledge of CAN Specification 2.0 is assumed[1].

An on line method for verification of chassis dynamometer operation uses a neural network. During the testing of a vehicle, it is assumed that after a warm up period the parasitic losses remain stable. There is normally no provision for verification of correct dynamometer operation while the test is running. This technique will detect if a component wears or fails during the testing of a vehicle and thus avoid testing under erroneous conditions. A Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) neural network is trained to recognise poor dynamometer operation in order to signal a fault condition to the operator.

With the introduction of vehicular digitization and automation, there has been significant growth in the number of Electronic Control Units (ECUs) inside vehicles, followed by the broader use of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving Systems (ADSs). The growth of the number of ECUs has also significantly increased the number of user interfaces. To conduct safe driving, in addition to those related to the real-time control of the vehicle, a driver also needs to be able to digest information effectively and efficiently from various ECUs via the Human-Machine Interface (HMI). To evaluate the safety of ADS, including its interactions with system users, some work has suggested that they will need to be driven for over 11 billion miles. However, the number of test miles driven is not a meaningful metric for judging safety. Instead, the types of scenarios encountered by the driver-vehicle interactions during testing are critically important.

All new European vehicles face strict drive-by noise regulations. It would help vehicle designers if they could predict drive-by noise given parameters available early in the design process. The large amount of data from previous tests suggests a new approach, using neural networks. This paper introduces neural networks and describes how to apply them to the prediction problem. The selection of suitable inputs and amount of data required is discussed. The problem can be simplified by first predicting vehicle performance. Interim results for a vehicle performance neural network are presented. Further work towards a drive-by noise neural network is proposed.

The legislative pressures on environmental targets combined with fuel economy requirements have led to the GDI engine enjoying a renaissance. This is because the technology is considered to be the leader in meeting those requirements. However it is also recognized that the engine suffers from injector deposits (ID) and that understanding the formation of and characterization of such deposits is required. This study will deal with the characterization and morphology of injector deposits as well as the fuel constituents leading to such deposits. A number of analytical techniques were used to undertake this such as Scanning Electron microscopy and X-ray Fluorescence (SEM/EDS) mapping with Fourier Transform Infra-red mapping, in conjunction with mass spectrometry studies. Further, work will be described regarding new deposit control additives (DCAs) for GDI which are more effective than traditional DCAs.

The advent of 3D displays offers Human-Machine Interface (HMI) designers and engineers new opportunities to shape the user's experience of information within the vehicle. However, the application of 3D displays to the in-vehicle environment introduces a number of new parameters that must be carefully considered in order to optimise the user experience. In addition, there is potential for 3D displays to increase driver inattention, either through diverting the driver's attention away from the road or by increasing the time taken to assimilate information. Manufacturers must therefore take great care in establishing the ‘do’s and ‘don’t's of 3D interface design for the automotive context, providing a sound basis upon which HMI designers can innovate. This paper describes the approach and findings of a three-part investigation into the use of 3D displays in the instrument cluster of a road car, the overall aim of which was to define the boundaries of the 3D HMI design space.