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Combustion feedback using cylinder pressure sensors, ion current sensors or alternative sensing techniques is actively under investigation by the automotive industry to meet future legislative emissions requirements. One of the drawbacks of many rapid prototyping engine management systems is their available analog interfaces, often limited to 10-12 bits with limited bandwidth, sampling rate and very simple anti-aliasing filters. Processing cylinder pressure or other combustion feedback sensors requires higher precision, wider bandwidths and more processing power than is typically available. For these reasons, Ricardo in collaboration with GM Research has developed a custom, high precision analog input subsystem for the rCube rapid prototyping control system that is specifically targeted at development of combustion feedback control systems.

Current significant challenges in the automotive industry for increasing fuel economy and reducing CO₂ emissions remain with traditional combustion engines. Moderately small increases in fuel efficiency lead to major reductions in CO₂ emissions, primarily due to large production volumes utilizing incremental fuel saving technologies. Enhancements of today's vehicle powertrains, including micro-hybrids and mild-hybrids with stop-start systems, and coasting and energy recuperation have shown a positive cost benefit and shorter payback period. This is identified when the technology is compared to more complex and expensive HEVs (Hybrid Electric Vehicles) and BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles).

Enhancements of today's Micro-Hybrids based on stop-start systems with and without coasting and energy recuperation show a positive cost-benefit and a much shorter payback period compared to more complex and expensive Full-Hybrid concepts. However, improved Micro-Hybrid functionalities have a higher demand on the vehicle's electrical power network, which cannot be covered with traditional topologies alone. To enable the advanced Micro-Hybrid features, additional energy storage elements like second lead acid batteries, double-layer capacitors or lithium-ion cell based storage systems will be integrated into the power network. This will stabilize the network and provide a reliable source of energy. To apply even further reaching measures like creeping (also called crawling), and high power recuperation, a dual voltage power network will be required. This can be achieved by adding a second voltage level to the traditional 12V power network.