IPG Automotive has unveiled an all-new steering test bench, which it claims eliminates the need for complete vehicle prototypes. As electronics and their interconnection within vehicles become ever more complex, and the range of variants grows, the volume of tests, costs and time required during the development process increase dramatically.
By combining test systems and virtual test driving, individual components and systems can be optimized early on at all stages of the development process. IPG Automotive’s steering test bench combined with the open integration and test platform CarMaker offers the optimal solution, enabling the volume of required tests to be managed and boosting the efficiency of adjusting, testing and validating real steering system components.
The test bench has a flexible design and can be adapted to different customer-specific steering systems in just a short space of time. All of the test bench’s actuators can be controlled separately. In combination with the sensors and the CarMaker simulation environment, the bench creates a control loop that allows steering maneuvers to be shown in a reproducible, realistic manner and the steering system behavior and steering feel to be tested. Thanks to virtual test driving, maneuver catalogues can be automatically and reproducibly tested – even to the limits of driving dynamics – by using the IPGDriver model.
Two electrical linear actuators allow for particularly precise control, permitting closed-loop testing to be carried out with IPG Automotive’s steering test bench. During this testing process, input values such as steering angle, steering torque and steering rod power are generated by the CarMaker simulation platform and fed into the EPS steering system. Suitable sensors such as power, torque, angle or position sensors then feed the signals back into the vehicle dynamics simulation.
As in IPG Automotive’s steering test bench, software and hardware come from a single source, it provides an optimum balance and minimizes latency times.
