VEHICO - controlling tomorrow's vehicles

The practical vehicle testing is becoming increasingly more important for the automotive industry. Stricter government regulations, an increase of safety awareness in the public and the ever increasing requirements for passive and active vehicle safety have resulted in a drastic increase in vehicle testing. Apart from a purely quantitative increase of testing kilometers the tests are getting more and more demanding. With conventional means many tests can either no more or only inadequately be realized.

Product Overview

Description

VEHICO offers solutions for the described problems in vehicle testing. Modern research results in the field of vehicle control were implemented in the computer guided vehicle testing systems. The entire spectrum from the pure control of the operating elements of a vehicle to the computer controlled track guidance of a single vehicle up to the synchronized driving of several vehicles is covered by modular stages of the products.

CO.ACT as the easiest product variant allows the actuation of the vehicles pedals, steering wheel or gearshift lever, by quickly assembled actuators. The movements of the control elements can be defined individually and executed with highest precision and absolute repeatability even in different test vehicles. A variety of driving tests can be put on a reliable and reproducible data basis, especially for tests in which previously the human factor has led to large uncertainties.

CO.REMOTE combines a driving robot with a remote control. By remotely controlling the steering angle and the pedal movements from outside the vehicle, unmanned vehicle testing can be realised in a very simple manner. The use of CO.REMOTE is very appropriate in tests where the driver otherwise would be exposed to large health burden and where the ease of use is of importance, e.g. in case of unmanned misuse tests.

CO.ACT and CO.REMOTE are open-loop concepts. The more advanced systems which base upon CO.ACT are the products CO.TRACK, CO.DRIVE and CO.SYNC and work according to a closed-loop concept.

With CO.TRACK the vehicle steering is automatically actuated. A steering control algorithm guarantees that the test vehicle drives on a pre-defined course. The acceleration and deceleration during the test is still performed by a driver or by pulling the vehicle with a winch. With the help of CO.TRACK tests can be realized where particularly the accuracy of the vehicles track matters.

CO.DRIVE is an extension of the functions of CO.TRACK where the test vehicle drives completely autonomously. Besides controlling the track CO.DRIVE additionally controls freely definable speed and acceleration profiles. A human driver is no longer required because the vehicle is completely driven by CO.DRIVE. Nevertheless the driver can operate the test car in the usual way if CO.DRIVE is disabled.

Two or more autonomous vehicles can be synchronized with CO.SYNC. A special synchronization module receives the data of each vehicle involved in the test. The driving states are optimized in that way that the previously defined distances between the vehicles or absolute positions at certain times are followed precisely. Such test constellations are necessary for designing future generations of driver assistance systems like adaptive cruise control or turning assistance systems.

The technological innovations of the products developed by VEHICO allow a high degree of automation in the area of vehicle testing with one or more vehicles and with easy-to-use products. The offered products are universally applicable for different vehicles - time-consuming adjustments to the respective vehicle must not be made.