Controller for Experimental Vehicle Using Multi-Processor System

Recently, active control technology of vehicles has extensively been developed. An experimental vehicle with independent hydro-pneumatic suspensions was constructed in our laboratory for the improvements in vehicle dynamics and ride-comfort. The vehicle includes a controller, mainly consisting of a multi-processor system with 5 CPUs. By combining this new system with a common bus, all CPUs can immediately access peripherals impartially without particular software. The CPUs can also acquire the data of sensors from the memory in the A/D module at any time without special software. The CPUs are shared to synthetically control the attitude and vibration of each vehicle wheel. Therefore, high capacity is exhibited by a simple system at low cost.

The performance of the controller was examined by actual running tests using the experimental vehicle, confirming the improvements in vehicle dynamics and ride-comfort, such as reduction in roll angle and vibration.