System cuts time and cost of engine calibration
A
The Mathworks product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Mar 18, 2003
Matlab is being used with Atlas, a test bed control system from MTS Systems Corp, to take automotive powertrain testing and development one step closer to being purely virtual.
Matlab is being used with Atlas, a test bed control system from MTS Systems Corp, to take automotive powertrain testing and development one step closer to being purely virtual.
The two products have been seamlessly integrated to provide, for the first time, a flexible link between the engine test bed system (TBS) and modelling and simulation tools.
This makes it possible to perform tests on an engine simulation as well as on a real engine, reducing the development time and cost of powertrain calibration.
Engine calibration and development is traditionally a hybrid process of physical testing and, to a lesser degree, modelling.
Although this is more cost-effective than purely physical testing, it is still a time consuming and difficult process: there are few modelling systems that can be directly linked to an engine test bed, and even when these two activities have been integrated they tend to be restrictive in their use and application.
Atlas provides a flexible environment that enables models and simulations in Matlab to be utilised on the test bed, allowing the user to test and develop engine components on a commercial scale in ways that would not previously have been possible.
This is a significant step towards virtual testing.
"The MathWorks has expertise in the area of mathematics and modelling that complements MTS Systems Corp's expertise in the area of test bed systems", said Kurt B Plischke, MTS Systems Corp, Powertrain Technology Division.
"As the automotive powertrain testing and development industry continues its evolution towards the world of purely virtual testing, open systems such as the one provided by Atlas and Matlab will play a role of ever increasing importance".
The ability to define new methods of calibrating engines on the test bed has been achieved in two ways.
First, through a series of extensions to the real-time scripting language in Atlas that controls all aspects of the TBS; and secondly, through real-time execution of compiled Simulink models that are run either directly on the real-time processor or on xPC-based rapid prototyping hardware.
Both of these methods enable greater flexibility with modelling as they allow Matlab and its toolboxes to interact freely with the test bed from within the Atlas environment.
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