Due to the multitude of external design constraints, such as
increasing fuel economy standards, and the increasing number of
global vehicle programs, developers of automotive transmission
controls have had to cope with increasing levels of system
complexity while at the same time being forced by the marketplace
to improve system quality, reduce development costs, and improve
time to market.
General Motors Powertrain (GMPT) chose to meet these challenges
through General Motors Company's Road-to-Lab-to-Math (RLM)
strategy, particularly the Math-based method of a virtual vehicle
simulation environment called System Simulation. The use of System
Simulation to develop transmission control algorithms has enabled
GMPT to improve product quality and reduce development times and
costs associated with the dependence on physical prototypes.
Additionally, System Simulation has facilitated the reuse of GMPT
controls development assets, improving overall controls development
efficiency.
The Mathworks Simulink® tool forms the basis for the GMPT
Transmission System Simulation environment, or virtual vehicle.
This paper describes this virtual vehicle environment, its key
components, and its application to transmission algorithm
development.