The Deep Orange framework is an integral part of the graduate automotive engineering education at Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR). The initiative was developed to immerse students into the world of an OEM. For the sixth generation of Deep Orange, the goal was to develop an urban utility/activity vehicle for the year 2020.
The objective of this paper is to describe the development and implementation of a dual-purpose powertrain system enabling vehicle propulsion as well as stationary activities of the Deep Orange 6 vehicle concept. AutoPacific data were first examined to define personas on the basis of their demographics and psychographics. The resulting market research, benchmarking, and brand essence studies were then converted to consumer needs and wants, to establish vehicle target and subsystem requirement, which formed the foundation of the Unique Selling Points (USPs) of the concept.
The Deep Orange 6 vehicle contains a very low floor supporting the active lifestyles of the target consumers through re-configurability of the interior, which enables a broad range of use cases including invehicle stationary activities. This concept required the development of a shallow dual-purpose electrical energy storage and power conversion system for the purpose of propelling the vehicle as well as powering various 110 VAC in-vehicle stationary activities for an extended period of time, at low noise levels and with zero local emissions.
The paper explains simulation based sub-system sizing and component selection to meet the overall vehicle performance and fuel economy targets. Furthermore, special attention will be paid to the development of a control logic keeping functional safety in mind especially related to the two modes of operation of the vehicle’s energy supply and power conversion system. The paper concludes with a description of the subsystem testing, including driveline and vehicle integration as part of the vehicle performance validation process.