dSPACE Tools Help UVic Students Streamline Vehicle Development

The University of Victoria (UVic) is one of 16 student teams across North America participating in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. An Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) organized by the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Labs, the EcoCAR Challenge, requires teams to re-engineer a General Motors donated vehicle to achieve improved fuel economy and reduced emissions while maintaining safety and consumer appeal. UVic has been using dSPACE hardware and software through all phases of the three year challenge, from modeling and simulation to prototype development.To meet the challenge of developing a realistic vehicle propulsion controller design for their extended-range electric vehicle (E-REV), engineering students from the University of Victoria (UVic) in Canada turned to dSPACE’s ASM Vehicle Dynamics model. With this dynamic simulation tool, they were able to create a fully parameterized vehicle dynamics model for all suspension and vehicle mass distribution characteristics and all drivetrain components, including an automated driver capable of issuing both propulsion and steering requests.