HIL Simulation for Mechatronic Automotive Electronic Control Units: Current applications in vehicle dynamics and electric power steering

The current trend in automotive electronics is to use an increasing number of highly integrated mechatronic ECUs. For example, in the latest generation of vehicle dynamics ECUs, the sensor cluster for capturing the acceleration and yaw rate is already integrated. Moreover electric motors with electronic control systems are increasingly used for steering sytems. To run hardware-in-the-loop tests on such systems, the classic HIL simulator requires additional dynamic test benches or components for simulating electrical loads, which in some cases are customer-specific. It is an advantage for end users to obtain an entire turnkey system from a single vendor.