Brake Response Time Measurement for a HIL Vehicle Dynamics Simulator

Vehicle dynamics simulation with Hardware In the Loop (HIL) has been demonstrated to reduce development and validation time for dynamic control systems. For dynamic control systems such as Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC), an accurate vehicle dynamics performance simulation system requires the Electronic Brake Control Module (EBCM) coupled with the vehicles brake system hardware. This kind of HIL simulation-specific software tool can further increase efficiency by means of automation and optimization of the development and validation process. This paper presents a method for HIL vehicle dynamics simulator optimization through Brake Response Time (BRT) correlation. The paper discusses the differences between the physical vehicle and the HIL vehicle dynamics simulator. The differences between the physical and virtual systems are used as factors in the development of a Design Of Experiment (DOE) quantifying HIL simulator performance. Finally, the DOE results are used to drive the development of a tool to correlate the HIL system hardware to the physical vehicle BRT. This leads to the development of hardware with improved BRT, and to the design of new HIL simulators with improved brake response.