Development and Application of Control-Oriented Power Train Model for a Variomatic Scooter

Competitive environment of scooter market demands for new improved products with minimum development time. Computer simulations are very useful in reducing the development time through virtual prototyping and testing the system on computers rather than making the hardware prototypes and testing on road. Particularly, lumped parameter modeling provides reasonably accurate results for predicting vehicle performance characteristics in short span of time. This is very useful when various system level targets have to be achieved and when trade-offs have to be made to obtain optimal results. In this work, a system-level powertrain model has been developed for small variomatic scooters with a mechanically actuated Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). The modeling and simulation technology developed in this work can aid in designing a scooter CVT system to provide the desired performance characteristics. Further, it can be very useful if one is contemplating to develop an electronically controlled CVT for scooter applications. The approach used in this work highlights the paradigm of model-based engineering and elucidates its use in a product development environment.