The design and develop software control systems for hybrid powertrains in GM

General Motors, racing to bring hybrid vehicles to market faster, is turning to simulation to lop weeks off the time required to design and develop software control systems for hybrid powertrains. 

And it goes beyond hybrids. GM is using technology known as model-based design from MathWorks Inc., of Natick, Mass., to develop software control systems for all new GM powertrains around the world.

This software, called Simulink, allows GM to simulate the control system for any GM powertrain before committing to the hardware.

"I don't think you could do a hybrid control system without model-based design and development," said Kent Helfrich, director of software engineering in GM Powertrain. Hybrid powertrains are far more complex than those built around internal combustion engines and require sophisticated software controls.

Hybrid integration

"The name of the game in hybrid systems is integration," Helfrich told Automotive News. "You can't make an engine and a transmission separately anymore and then integrate them at the last minute. This has to be conceptualized as a family, as a system. If the system isn't conceptualized well, your end product's not going to work very well."

The automaker used MathWorks tools to design and develop its Two Mode hybrid powertrain control system launched in January on the GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs.

The Two Mode hybrid control system was done entirely in model-based design, Helfrich said.

"That really enabled engineers to do what they needed to do to ensure that the system actually worked, prior to even having hardware available," he said.

GM is reducing costs and taking weeks out of the development time of control systems for hybrid powertrains, he said. The automaker also is shortening its cycle time on design changes without affecting quality, he said.

"We can now do those iterations virtually, and then commit ourselves to hardware later in the design center," Helfrich said. "It saved us a lot of money in terms of eliminated prototypes and rework."

Helfrich declined to quantify the cost and time savings. "It's hard to quantify things that you didn't do," he said. "But we couldn't do it without this. So it's not really a cost avoidance in that it is the only way to achieve what we need to achieve in our integrated powertrain controls."

Chain of tools

GM is using the same model-based design in engineering centers around the world, he said.

"The key is having one tool chain and one software product line globally for all of GM powertrain engineering," Helfrich said. "That's kind of unusual."

Just as automakers build a variety of vehicle models on a single platform, Helfrich's team is making those same types of design and architecture choices at a software level, said Jon Friedman, manager of aerospace, defense and automotive industry marketing at MathWorks.

MathWorks' competitors in the market for control system design software tools include Wind River Systems Inc., of Alameda, Calif.; and Mentor Graphics Corp., of Wilsonville, Ore.

GM also has powertrain control systems that were developed before the availability of model-based design. "That means we've got an interesting combination of old software and new software coexisting," Helfrich said.

"But it's good because the old software's validated and high-quality and is in use in millions of vehicles worldwide. We don't want to replace that unless we absolutely have to."

Companies such as Toyota Motor Corp., Denso Corp. and Delphi Corp. also use MathWorks tools to provide a common platform for sharing system specifications and development ideas.

參考譯文：

通用汽車——在盡力以更快的速度將混合動力汽車推向市場——正轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)椴捎媚M仿真的方式去設(shè)計(jì)和開發(fā)混合動力的軟件控制系統(tǒng)，而這種方式可以節(jié)約數(shù)周的時(shí)間。

它所做的已經(jīng)超越了混合動力汽車。通用汽車公司正在使用的技術(shù)被稱為基于模型的設(shè)計(jì)，使用的是馬薩諸塞州的納提克的MathWorks，主要用于為世界各地所有新的通用汽車的傳動系統(tǒng)開發(fā)軟件控制系統(tǒng)。

這個(gè)叫做Simulink的軟件，使得通用汽車能夠在交付給硬件之前模擬任何通用動力總成的控制系統(tǒng)。

“我認(rèn)為如果沒有基于模型的設(shè)計(jì)和開發(fā)，你就無法開發(fā)出一套混合動力控制系統(tǒng)，”通用汽車動力總成軟件工程部門的主任Kent Helfrich說?；旌蟿恿ο到y(tǒng)遠(yuǎn)比那些圍繞著內(nèi)燃機(jī)的建造和需要復(fù)雜的軟件控制的系統(tǒng)復(fù)雜得多。

混合動力系統(tǒng)的整合

“混合動力系統(tǒng)的實(shí)質(zhì)是整合，”Helfrich告訴Automotive News?！澳悴荒茉侔岩婧蛡鲃臃珠_，然后讓他們在最后一分鐘進(jìn)行整合。這個(gè)概念可以被稱為一個(gè)家庭，或一個(gè)系統(tǒng)。如果這一系統(tǒng)沒有被很好的概念化，那么你的最終產(chǎn)品也不會運(yùn)行的很好?！?/SPAN>

汽車制造商使用MathWorks工具來設(shè)計(jì)和開發(fā)的兩種模式混合動力控制系統(tǒng)在1月首先發(fā)布于GMC Yukon和雪佛蘭Tahoe的SUV上。

“這兩種模式的混合控制系統(tǒng)是完全基于模型的設(shè)計(jì)，”Helfrich說。

“這真的使工程師能夠做他們需要做的，以確保在硬件可用之前系統(tǒng)實(shí)際處于工作中，”他說。

“通用汽車正在降低成本，并考慮縮短數(shù)周的混合動力控制系統(tǒng)的開發(fā)時(shí)間，”他說，“在不影響質(zhì)量的前提下，公司還正在縮短設(shè)計(jì)變更的周期?！?/FONT>