The project development manager will be presenting in the free-to-attend Open Technology Forum at Automotive Testing Expo Europe 2018 on how to reduce vehicle prototypes via front-loading in drivability-related development.
What are the key challenges in current powertrain development?
Reducing development times and costs and increasing product quality: these three targets are the primary drivers for changes in the automotive industry as products also become more complex.
This is particularly true when calibrating engines and transmissions, and hybrid and electric vehicles. Nowadays, driveability calibration is mainly conducted based on real-life analysis using an incredibly high number of expensive prototype vehicles, and driving them on test tracks. This process typically accounts for up to 50% of the overall calibration effort and costs. Furthermore, prototype vehicles are only available in the late phases of the development process, which is also very costly and SOP shifts in case of hardware changes are required.
How is AVL helping its customers to overcome these challenges?
Our ultimate aim is to develop earlier, faster, cheaper and better quality. Our technologies and solutions are focused on front loading, automation and design of experiments enabling highly dynamic testing.
The first step is using prototype vehicles in the most efficient way. In SOP project-proven development environments, vehicle-in-the-loop on chassis-dyno- and powertrain-testbeds can also be used.
– Via automation we can perform three times as many maneuvers per hour compared to on a test track.
– Via 24/7 utilization of the prototype vehicles we can generate four times as many maneuvers compared to when testing for eight hours a day, five days a week on a test track.
– Via application of DOE methodologies, we can reduce the amount of required measurement points by a factor of three.
This results in an overall potential for effort reduction by a factor of 36.
The second step is to combine the hardware with a real-time model of the vehicle, tire, road, environment and driver. In SOP project-proven development environments, powertrain-in-the-loop analysis on testbeds is also useful.
Ongoing investigations – driveline-in-the-loop on a powertrain testbed (additional virtual engine); engine-in-the-loop on a high dynamic engine testbed (additional virtual drive line).
– Via the combination of real hardware and models, calibration of powertrains can be started six months in advance of the availability of prototype vehicles.
What do you hope to gain by speaking in the Open Tech Forum at Automotive Testing Expo Europe 2018?
I hope to get in contact with engineers and decision makers and hopefully have fruitful discussions on our different process innovations. Being prepared for upcoming challenges and future requirements is our main goal that we aim to achieve together with our partners.
Rainer Schantl is speaking on Day 2 of the show (Wednesday June 6) at 10.50. More information can be found here.