Project

DSLD Vehicle Stability Enhancement and Demonstration

Period
1 September 2017–31 October 2018
Project manager
Jonas Alfredson

Project A-0021 within SAFER's Open Research at AstaZero Program.

One of the main challenges when it comes to developing dynamically attractive road cars is to find the best possible compromise between the conflicting goals of high speed stability and low speed maneuverability, in other words the compromise between safe cars and cars that are still fun to drive. The significance of said compromise is based on the fact that the demands put on the chassis for safe highway driving is fundamentally different to the demands for low to medium speed agility. The DSLD technology addresses this fact and makes it possible to totally transform the dynamics of the car with respect to its stability and agility within micro seconds, essentially giving two cars in one, with adaptive control this can make the car suit any driving situation. The main idea of this project is to validate this ability of the DSLD to make cars less of a dynamic compromise. Verification of a basic control system for the new semi-active differential (DSLD) to obtain a control system that can be used for demonstrations.

As already mentioned the DSLD has the ability to continuously adapt the stability of the vehicle to the situation. The DSLD control system can be turned off to render the car in its original state meaning it is quite easy to do back to back testing between base car and DSLD-equipped car. The expected outcome of the project is to quantify the dynamic benefits resulting from the DSLD and its control in various relevant driving scenarios. The long term value for DsenseD technology AB will be that we can use the obtained test result in the continued commercialization of the DSLD technology. The latter part of this project will also include Demo activities with invited potential customers and partners. One other important value will be the fact that we will learn more about performing qualitative testing and evaluation of test results which will be beneficial for the future of DsenseD.

The testing will be performed at the High Speed Area mainly to assess the influence of the DSLD on the medium to high-speed stability and also its influence on the handling balance of the Saab 93 test vehicle. The stability evaluation will be performed in transient steering maneuvers.
  Open loop: Sine with dwell at 80 and 100 km/h with increasing amplitude
  Closed loop: Double lane change (modified ISO 3888-2)
A further objective is to map the handling balance influence of the DSLD on high-speed steady state (and semi steady state) cornering.
  Closed loop: Steady and Quasi Steady State Cornering: 90m, 110m, (stretched target 130-150m)

Acceleration out of a corner maneuver will be performed to show the increased performance (higher cornering speed) and improved handling balance (decreased understeer tendencies) provided by the DSLD.
  Closed loop: 30 m and opening radius in 2nd gear, 60 m and opening radius in 3rd gear.

Short facts

Research area
Systems for accident prevention and AD
Financier(s)
Open Research at AstaZero Program (RISE, Chalmers)
Partners
DsenseD technology AB
Chalmers University of Technology
Project type
Open research