As a result of increasingly stringent regulations and higher customer expectations, auto manufacturers have been considering numerous technology options to improve vehicle fuel economy. Transmissions have been shown to be one of the most cost-effective technologies for improving fuel economy. Over the past couple of years, transmissions have significantly evolved and impacted both performance and fuel efficiency. This study validates the shifting control of advanced automatic transmission technologies in vehicle systems by using Argonne National Laboratory's model-based vehicle simulation tool, Autonomie.
Different midsize vehicles, including several with automatic transmission (6-speeds, 7-speeds, and 8-speeds), were tested at Argonne's Advanced Powertrain Research Facility (APRF). For the vehicles, a novel process was used to import test data. In addition to importing measured test signals into the Autonomie environment, the process also calculated some of the critical missing signals, such as gear ratio and torque converter lockup. Numerous analysis functions have been developed to quickly analyze the shifting map, using the integrated test data in Autonomie to generate model parameters. In addition, a set of calibrations for the generic shifting algorithm was developed to match the test data. Finally, we demonstrated the validation of Autonomie transmission component models and control strategy by using APRF vehicle test data over different driving cycles.