Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation of Brake-by-Wire Systems with FlexRay Communication

This paper proposes a design approach for the network configuration of brake-by-wire (BBW) systems using the FlexRay communication protocol. Owing to the absence of mechanical or hydraulic back-ups, the BBW system needs to be highly reliable and fault-tolerant. The FlexRay network is shown to be very effective for such requirements of BBW systems by using hardware in-the-loop simulation (HILS), which allows developing and testing various algorithms and faithfully reproduces the actual system. The FlexRay protocols are designed using the FIBEX configuration tool appropriately for the control of BBW systems, and they are analyzed using the FlexRay communication monitoring tool. The results of HILS illustrate that the braking performance of a controller area network (CAN)-based network and that of a FlexRay-based network for BBW systems are very similar, however, the FlexRay-based network system is more reliable and ensures better fault diagnosis by monitoring more variables.