Driving Robot for Reproducible Testing: A Novel Combination of Pedal and Steering Robot on a Steerable Vehicle Test Bench

Abstract

Shorter development times, increased standards for vehicle emissions and a greater number of vehicle variants result in a higher level of complexity in the vehicle development process. Efficient development of powertrain and driver assistance functions under comparable and reproducible operating conditions is possible on vehicle test benches. Yet, the realistic simulation of real driving environments on test benches is a challenge. Current test procedures and new technologies, such as Real Driving Emission tests and Autonomous Driving, require a reproducible and even more detailed simulation of the driving environment. Due to this, the simulation of curve driving in particular is gaining in importance. This results from its significant influence on energy consumption and Autonomous Driving functions with lateral guidance, such as lane departure and evasion assistance. Reproducibility can be additionally increased by using a driving robot. At today’s vehicle test benches, pedal and shift robots are predominantly used for longitudinal dynamic tests in the performed test procedures. In order to meet these new test automation requirements for vehicle test benches, the cooperative operation of pedal and steering robots is needed on a test bench setup suitable for this purpose. In this publication, the authors present the setup of a vehicle test bench to be used in automated and reproducible vehicle-in-the-loop tests during steering events. The focus is on the test-bench-specific setup with steerable front wheels, the actuators for simulating the wheel steering torque around the steering axle and the robots used for pedals and steering wheel. Results from various test series are presented and the potential of the novel test environment is shown. The results are reproducible in various test series due to the closed-loop operation without human driving influences at the test bench.

A Survey on Testbench‐Based Vehicle‐in‐the‐Loop Simulation Testing for Autonomous Vehicles: Architecture, Principle, and Equipment

“…In addition, as the testbench‐based VIL is usually conducted in an indoor laboratory, both traditional and steerable testbenches need to simulate longitudinal inertia and resistance forces (e.g., wind resistance, rolling resistance) on different road gradients for the AVUT by applying and adjusting torques on the rollers, [ 101 ] that is, the resultant force of these forces is merely implemented through emulating the tire forces. However, it needs to be more accurate to simulate the resistance forces by depending on the rollers alone, because the attitude of AVUT will affect its comprehensive performance, especially in some complex road conditions, such as ramp bridges and slope roads.…”

Electrified Powertrain Development: Distributed Co-Simulation Protocol Extension for Coupled Test Bench Operations

“…For the results of the coupled test benches example presented in this paper, a vehicle simulation of a parallel P2 hybrid was set up to generate a suitable environment for the coupled test benches. Gas and brake pedal positions are calculated from a driver model, developed and validated for a driving robot on a full vehicle test bench [51]. As a result, control problems due to inertias in the powertrain or latencies caused by test bench communication can be avoided.…”

A Generic Approach to Modeling Vehicle Pitch Dynamics on a Vehicle Test Bench

“…A comparison of coefficients in (27) for the virtual displacements δz and δθ provides the equation for the generalized force Q 1 :…”

“…The vehicle on the test bench is cooled by an air fan (4) and ensures an air flow for the heat dissipation of different vehicle parts, for example, powertrain and brake disks. For a more detailed description of the test bench, see [27]. The main technical data of the test bench are presented in Table 1.…”