As the adoption of electric vehicles continues to accelerate, the demand for their development and testing using chassis dynamometers has also increased significantly. Compared with internal combustion engine vehicles, chassis dynamometer testing for electric vehicles typically requires test durations several to several dozen times longer, resulting in substantially increased labor requirements. In addition, low-temperature testing is often required, further intensifying the workload associated with vehicle testing. To address these challenges, this study developed and evaluated a pedal robot designed to enable unmanned and automated testing.
The pedal robot developed in this study weighs only 12 kg and can be installed within a few minutes. It is, to the authors’ knowledge, the world’s first pedal robot that mimics human driving behavior by using a single foot to operate both the accelerator and brake pedals. Unlike conventional driving robots, the actuators of the proposed system do not require direct mechanical attachment to the vehicle pedals, allowing for rapid installation. Furthermore, the robot is mounted on the driver-side floor, eliminating the need for attachment to the seat structure.
The pedal robot features three degrees of freedom driven by three motors and employs artificial intelligence to recognize the shape and position of pedals across different vehicle models, thereby enabling automated test initiation without manual adjustment.
The performance of the pedal robot was evaluated under UDDS, HWFET, and WLTC driving modes, and the results were analyzed in accordance with the SAE J2951 standard. Comparative evaluations demonstrated that the pedal robot achieved superior speed-tracking performance relative to that of an experienced human test driver. The developed pedal robot is currently being utilized for vehicle certification testing of electric and other vehicles at the Mobile Environment Research Center of the National Institute of Environmental Research in Korea. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the corresponding experimental results.