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Automotive manufacturers continue to move further toward powertrain electrification. There are already many hybrid electric vehicles on the market that are based on a variety of system architectures. Ford Motor Company has investigated a new Dual Drive configuration that promises to overcome some of the attribute deficiencies associated with current architectures. The primary objective of this development project was to demonstrate the fuel economy potential of this system in a vehicle. To accomplish this objective, the team used an internally developed, formal Controls Development Process (CDP) for the control system design and validation. This paper describes the development of the vehicle control system in the context of this process.

The desire for improved vehicle fuel economy, driven by high gas prices and concerns over energy independence, have sparked interest and demand for hybrid electric vehicles. Hybrid electric vehicle propulsion systems exhibit complex interactions which need to be understood in order to maximize fuel economy over the range of operating modes. Model-based development processes which use vehicle system models capable of representing the functional behaviors with embedded controls are needed for fast, efficient design of vehicle control systems which manage overall energy usage. Model-based vehicle system development processes have been employed for a Dual Drive HEV system. The process for creating these vehicle system models is described along with an approach for using these models to develop HEV systems. Details of key subsystem models and the process for integration of full vehicle implementation level controls are discussed.

Within automotive OEM's, there has been increasing reliance on vehicle system modeling for: Successful implementation of new system level technologies; Meeting the quality and efficiency demands of shorter product development cycles; and Enabling more analytical optimization of hardware and software systems. Ensuring high efficiency and quality of system engineering work reliant on vehicle system modeling requires enabling enterprise wide model sharing, highly coordinated cross-functional model development efforts and standard methods and processes. This paper discusses key elements and requirements of standard methods and processes for vehicle system modeling. First, obstacles to wider reliance on system modeling within current system engineering processes are described. Then a discussion is presented of model specifications as a central element in enabling more of a model driven vehicle system engineering process.

As the complexity of automotive chassis control systems increases with the introduction of technologies such as yaw and roll stability systems, processes for model-based development of chassis control systems becomes an essential part of ensuring overall vehicle safety, quality, and reliability. To facilitate such a model-based development process, a vehicle modeling framework intended for chassis control development has been created. This paper presents a design methodology centered on this modeling framework which has been applied to real world driving events and has demonstrated its capability to capture vehicle dynamic behavior for chassis control development applications.