Low-Power Flexible Controls Architecture for General Motors Partnership for a New Generation (Pngv) Precept Vehicle

The complexity of designing and implementing a vehicle electrical control system for ultra fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles is significantly greater than that of a conventional vehicle. To quickly demonstrate and iterate capabilities of these vehicles, an efficient and rapid means for developing requirements, mapping these into an electrical control and communications architecture, and developing prototype systems is needed.

The General Motors Precept concept vehicle is an example of an energy- efficient vehicular control system developed using a "requirements to software'' development process and electronic controller infrastructure that demonstrates these attributes. The Precept is General Motors Corporation's technology demonstration concept vehicle developed to address General Motors Corporation's commitment to the Partnership for a New Generation (PNGV) program.

This paper describes the goals, process, and implementation of the electronic controls used in the development of this ultra fuel-efficient hybrid electric vehicle. The process incorporates vehicle worthy prototyping components, and tools that are flexible enough to accommodate evolutionary development of control algorithms.