AUTOMOTIVE
DRIVE-BY-WIRE-SYSTEMS
AB DYNAMICS
AB DYNAMICS WORKS WITH VOLVO CARS
TO CARRY OUT ADVANCED TESTING USING
INNOVATIVE DRIVE-BY-WIRE SYSTEM, FLEX-0
Volvo Cars is now conducting advanced
vehicle testing using an innovative
drive-by-wire technology from leading
test system supplier, AB Dynamics. Flex-0
enables vehicles to be driven directly
through the CAN bus, without the need for
a human driver or robot. This represents a
significant step forward, greatly simplifying
installation and test processes, reducing
costs and minimising the amount of test
hardware required within the vehicle. system, data logger and a motion pack.
Together, these can control a vehicle safely,
repeatably and more accurately than
a human test driver – to within 20mm.
This level of accuracy and repeatability
is achievable thanks to AB Dynamics’
best-in-class path-following and speed
control. Flex-0 maintains this precise
control without the requirement for robots
in a number of common vehicle test
applications.
Conventionally, hardware installed for
an objective vehicle test would include
a steering robot, pedal robots, control “Many modern cars have the capability
to be controlled by wire, allowing the
Flex-0 to drive them as though they had
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robots fitted. This opens up opportunities
to use our Path Following and Synchro
technology to perform many types of tests
for which you’d otherwise need robots,”
explains Jeremy Ash, Commercial Manager,
AB Dynamics. “Typically, by-wire control is
tightly secured by the vehicle manufacturer
to avoid security concerns. For this reason,
we generally output in a standardised
format which allows manufacturers to
implement their own conversion to suit the
vehicle, and this has been shown to work
particularly well.”