Aspects and Perspectives of Contemporary Design Driver Methodology

Summary

Simulation tools are meanwhile well established and proven methods in design cycles of motor vehicles. The increasing complexity of car suspensions, drive line management systems, and other measures of improving car dynamics, as well as the growing importance of the customers’ demands require an appropriate adaptation of the development tools.

Two main directions seem to be suitable to meet those challenges. Firstly, the experimental efforts may be enforced in order to obtain more detailled information about customers’ demand profiles. Secondly, the human car driving performance is modelled and incorporated into computer programs for a closed-loop simulation of driver-car systems.

This contribution will be concerned with both approaches. It discusses some of the typical potentialities and tendencies of future car functions. The respective experimental test requirements, including the corresponding facilities, are derived. It emphasizes the methods of man-in-the-loop simulation and presents some criteria for its hard-and software realisation from an ergonomical point-of-view. On the other hand, results of the many years experience of both authors m the field of systems engineering driver modelling are surveyed and compared to those of other competing models.

Finally, a synthesis of both approaches outlined will be aimed at. This suggests a strategy connecting the man-in-the-loop simulation iteratively with the pure computer closed-loop simulation. It is expected that in this way the experimental efforts can be reduced to an inevitable amount, because experiments serve just as sample data sources of the computer closed-loop simulation.

Obviously, not all properties of motor vehicle dynamics can be covered by simulation techniques; therefore, some of the limitations of this methodology will be considered as well.