The UniCarRagil project, which brought together 16 universities and companies at 10 locations in Germany to conduct interdisciplinary R&D on autonomous vehicles, concluded at the end of May. Disruptive modular architectures in hardware and software for automated vehicle concepts were developed, and four fully automated prototypes for the shuttle, cab, bus and cargo sectors were built.
IPG Automotive contributed its CarMaker simulation platform. For the sub-project on configuration and setup of a SIL and HIL environment for modular validation, IPG Automotive worked closely with the Institute of Automotive Engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt (FZD), with its focus on modular validation, motion control and safe stopping.
At the beginning of the research initiative, CarMaker offered the partners an open integration platform to develop and test individual modules simultaneously. New concepts could be simulated in a test environment early on, thanks to customized interfaces. For trajectory planning, the developers began using conventional vehicle and steering concepts based on the driver model IPGDriver as a trajectory controller.
Forms of motion such as parallel parking or steady-state turning were integrated into the simulation by extending existing steering models with individually controllable wheels that can be steered up to 90°. The electric drive, brake, single-wheel steering and suspension were also mapped in a parameterizable way.
Additional interfaces between CarMaker and the final ECU were provided for the change from purely software-based SIL to HIL tests. The simulation and test platform was connected to a middleware developed in the project, which enables modular updates. In addition, CarMaker transmitted synthetic navigation data to the ECU and provided a highly accurate time signal.
To support the development, a satellite display and the detailed 3D model of a prototype were added to the CarMaker visualization tool IPGMovie.
The UniCarRagil research project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
