Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EVE (INNOVATIVE ENGINEERING OF GROUND VEHICLES WITH INTEGRATED ACTIVE CHASSIS SYSTEMS)

Teaser

Development of information technologies and mechatronic systems as well as an increased demand on environment-acceptable and safe intelligent technologies has a profound impact on ground vehicle engineering in general. This impact results in both an increasing degree of...

Summary

Development of information technologies and mechatronic systems as well as an increased demand on environment-acceptable and safe intelligent technologies has a profound impact on ground vehicle engineering in general. This impact results in both an increasing degree of automation of systems employed in ground vehicles and emerging new concepts like integrated chassis control (ICC). The integrated active chassis systems perform the control on the vehicle motion to enhance safety, eco-friendliness, performance, comfort etc. Application areas of ICC relate not only to the traditional transportation sector of passenger cars and commercial vehicles but also to the agricultural, mining, construction and forestry machinery. In spite of existing engineering solutions for integrated chassis control, relevant examples are mainly subjected to the concept, high price segment or electric vehicles. In addition, wide intersectoral networking with an international dimension is missing here and this can be considered as a tangible barrier for rapid development and market implementation of integrated active chassis systems. Thus, there is a strong demand for the consolidated research and innovation actions for ICC technologies and the project EVE is contributed with novel engineering to address this problem.

The EVE project activities are concentrated around integration of active brake, suspension and tyre pressure control systems as one of promising solutions for simultaneous improvement of safety and driving comfort of ground vehicles. This complex task is being solved in the project through a set of research, innovation and technological objectives covering development of (i) advanced vehicle models for real-time control applications, (ii) designing of integrated chassis controller, and (iii) conceptual development and practical realization of remote distributed test technology allowing cooperative experiments on stationary and mobile test rigs.

The research and innovation activities of the EVE project are realized by way of the professional development of the participating staff through intersectoral and international collaboration and secondments to unique research environments exploring cutting-edge knowledge and technologies in ground vehicle and control systems engineering.

Work performed

The works performed can be summarized as follows.

(i) Tyre and vehicle modelling and testing. The consortium carried out intensive experimental activities at different test hosts and using different testing and measurement technique to collect data and parametrize several tyre models. The real-time models of automotive subsystems are developed for decoupled brake system, semi-active suspension and dynamic tyre pressure control. During the second reporting period, the created real-time models were used in the experiments on the HIL test setup. In addition, the models are extra validated by the results of the field trials with the EVE vehicle demonstrator.

(ii) Integrated chassis control. For the final project stage, the consortium developed and implemented the state estimators for suspension and wheel slip control as well as disturbance rejection methods on the hardware systems. All the proposed analytical tools were investigated using various test setups as four-poster test rig and field trials. The robustness and real-time applicability of the tools is confirmed. During the final reporting period, the integrated controller is realized on the vehicle demonstrator to manage joint operation of the semi-active suspension, the brake system with the wheel slip control, and the tyre pressure control system. The improvement of driving safety and comfort is investigated and confirmed by the results of laboratory and field tests of the demonstrator. A patent application disclosing approach and implementation of the EVE integrated chassis controller is prepared and submitted to the patent authority.

(iii) Vehicle systems and testing. During the second reporting period, the concept of the remote distributed test technology in the form of several X-in-the-loop (XIL) architectures connecting test rigs from different domains is extended for driving simulator studies. In addition, the real-time experiments between simultaneously operating test hosts are performed through connection of master/slave processors situated in Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa and USA. The feasibility of the distributed test technology is demonstrated both for open-loop and closed-loop controllable vehicle manoeuvres with operating anti-lock braking system.

(iv) Networking activities. An extensive experience sharing has been carried out in various practical areas dedicated to modern test technologies. This experience sharing concerned the operation and experimental procedures on four-poster full vehicle vibration test setup, tyre measurement trailers, rolling road dynamometer, hardware-in-the-loop brake test rig. Extra attention is dedicated to the transfer of knowledge in field tests on instrumented vehicles in on-road and off-road conditions. Intensive dissemination activities of the EVE community has been realized through Technical Committee “Motion Control” of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems, the ResearchGate web-network. In addition to the consortium-wide actions, each EVE participating organizations demonstrated and used the project results in running bilateral activities with collaborators from academic and industrial sectors.

Final results

The EVE consortium produced a set of research and innovation outcomes providing progress vs. state-of-the-art technologies. These outcomes include in particular:
- Novel methods of continuous wheel slip control using sliding mode control technique with their practical implementation for decoupled electro-hydraulic brake system;
- New design of multi-level semi-active suspension;
- Full scale demonstrator of integrated chassis controller for a sport utility vehicle with off-road driving capability;
- Prototype of XIL technology for real-time connection of test rigs from different physical domains.

On the European level, the project EVE is making manifold impact through:
- Contribution to the European Road Safety Charter and the European Green Vehicle Initiative by the development of new automotive technologies related to the improvement of vehicle safety, efficiency and comfort;
- Reinforcement of innovation regions, for instance, by bringing new competences to Thuringian, Picardy, Aragonese and Flemish innovation clusters in mobility technologies;
- Closer cooperation and establishment of new strong contacts and reliable ties between academic and non-academic sectors in Europe, South Africa and the USA in the field of safe and energy-efficient vehicles.

All these results were made possible thanks to successful transfer of knowledge and joint development and experimental activities of participating staff from Germany, South Africa, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, UK and USA. During the full project duration, 56 researchers participated directly in the secondments and they were actively cooperated with many professionals at secondment hosts. Participating staff received personal benefits from intersectoral, international, and interdisciplinary cooperation and can efficiently use now the gained skills both in running activities and for initiation of further innovation projects.