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Automotive

	Aisin Aisin Corporation, a brake system and transmission supplier based in Japan, has selected CarSim RT-LAB for hardware-in-the-loop testing of ECUs for major vehicle control systems. In comparison with the proprietary system that CarSim RT-LAB replaced, the new real-time dynamic vehicle simulator offers improved flexibility and performance at a lower cost. Based on standard PC hardware and commercial I/O interfaces, CarSim RT-LAB integrates a rich set of features designed for vehicle model development, simulation control, and parameter tuning.
	Allison Transmission of GM Allison Transmission is using a cluster of RT-LAB systems for development, functional testing, and validation of production-intended ECUs. The open and flexible nature of RT-LAB has made it ideal as the core of a sophisticated development environment that handles static testing, drive cycle testing, and dynamic testing. The system not only automates the task of functional testing, but also provides a virtual copy of the vehicle so system analysis can be carried out in the lab before physical prototypes are built. The use of dynamic simulation has resulted in significant savings, both in time and budget. Additional detail of the project can be found in SAE Paper No. 2000-01-3470, The Allison Transmission Hybrid Electric Drive Simulation Development. This contract was obtained after a close evaluation of several vendors, including tools, which have been conventionally chosen in the past.
	Cummins Engine Company Cummins has adopted RT-LAB, Opal-RT's deployable Rapid Control Prototyping system, as the in-vehicle development system for delivery to their customers. RT-LAB software is installed on commercial-off-the-shelf PC/104 hardware.
	DENSO DENSO Corporation, a global supplier of automotive technology, systems and components is using RT-LAB for various advanced automotive development projects.
	Ford Commissioned by Ford Research Laboratory to find a solution to prevent the loss of precision that occurs in engine simulations when instantaneous events (such as ignition sparks) occur between fixed-time steps, Opal-RT has developed a blockset to improve the accuracy and speed of real-time simulations. With RT-EVENTS' innovative mathematical techniques, exact event timing is captured within the fixed-time step integration necessary for real time simulation. RT-EVENTS enables the implementation of control algorithms with dynamically adjusted sample times and the coupling of discrete and continuous systems. In addition to the reduction in lost time obtained with RT-EVENTS, Ford Research Laboratory is further accelerating their engine simulations with RT-LAB's parallel-computing feature, running the models on a XEON server equipped with eight 700MHz processors.
	Ford Powertrain RT-LAB has been incorporated into the company's Powertrain Core Competency training program. The program equips student engineers with skills to calibrate Electronic Control Units (ECU) for vehicle engines, in order to achieve specific design objectives. This includes gaining hands-on experience with Ford's standard calibration tools and software that interfaces with the ECU in order to allow parameters to be changed and optimized. Read the Success Story: "Before we used RT-LAB, we had to use specialized hardware that emulated the engine. However, these were very awkward to set up by the students and we found that we were spending as much time troubleshooting the simulator as we were calibrating the ECU - not a very efficient use of anyone's time. Now, with this setup, I configure the engine simultaneously for all the students with a couple of mouse-clicks, saving an enormous amount of time." - Mike Assenmacher, Training Specialist, Powertrain Core Competency Center, Ford Motor Company
	GM ATV GM's Advanced Technology Vehicles Division is using RT-LAB for various advanced automotive development projects. The client started with a two target industrial rack mount system, and as the project progressed GM was able to adapt to increased computation loads by simply adding a third target node. For example, GM Advanced Technology Vehicles will be using RT-LAB in the development of the inverter motors required for their ambitious task. Sample speeds are between 50 and 100 s and Opal-RT is providing technology such as Firewire inter-processor communication in order to allow hard real-time communication between the front and rear motor simulators.
	GM Powertrain GM's Advanced Power Transfer Group bought an RT-LAB Engineering Simulator in order to develop and test innovative control strategies on next generation vehicle transmissions. The system allows them to develop and test the controllers in the laboratory using high fidelity models of the prototype transmission, then test the controllers in the test bed and in-vehicle prior to going to production.
	Peugeot Peugeot is using RT-LAB as a new rapid control prototyping platform for the development of their next-generation engine control and dynamic systems.
	Robert Bosch Corporation The Robert Bosch Corporation has selected Opal-RT Technologies Inc. to supply deployable Rapid Control Prototyping systems. After a careful review of competing products, RT-LABe was chosen for in-vehicle testing of advanced automotive technologies at Bosch's Research and Technology Center North America. RT-LAB Electrical Engineering Simulator has been installed on standard off-the-shelf hardware including both industrial-quality PC/104 and standard notebook computers. Customer support and flexibility were cited as the main selection factors.
	Sauer Danfoss Sauer-Danfoss successfully implemented an RT-LAB HilBox on a Series 90 pump. This is the initial testing for the transmission of the intelligent systems vehicle and is the first demonstration of this technology in North America. "RT-LAB is rapidly becoming a powerful enabling tool for our engineers, who can quickly create Simulink and Stateflow models and port them to real time hardware. The combination of hardware and software is reasonably priced, fast, and most importantly, reliable. RT-LAB, coupled with excellent product support, has helped us to put high-level model-based design tools in the hands of technical experts who aren't necessarily programmers." - Dennis Burns, Technology Development Engineer, Sauer-Danfoss
	Toyota Toyota is presently using RT-LAB for hardware-in-the-loop testing of ECUs. Each RT-LAB tester consists of two real-time target PCs linked by the IEEE-1394 "Firewire" bus (iLINK); taking advantage of RT-LAB's distributed real-time simulation capabilities. For these applications, RT-LAB offers excellent price performance ratio by making use of standard PC hardware and a well-integrated real-time operating system. In addition, RT-LAB's open and flexible architecture has made it possible to easily integrate custom I/O hardware and software.
	Visteon The Visteon Chassis Controls Group purchased a three target RT-LAB Engineering Simulator in order to devise new control design tools to be used to build and test chassis related control systems for automotive applications.
	General Electric Transportation Systems (GETS) General Electric Transportation Systems (GETS) selected an RT-LAB Electrical Engineering Simulator (EES) to test DC-AC, AC-DC and cyclo converter controllers. The firing pulses of the controller are connected directly to the RT-LAB EES, which detects the pulse status and the time of occurrence of the turn-on and turn-off commands. The simulator computes the transients and returns voltages and currents to the controller through high-speed analog outputs within 50 µs.
	General Electric Transportation Systems Off Highway Vehicles GETS Off Highway Vehicles (OHV) have just taken delivery of a fully integrated RT-LAB Engineering Simulator that will be used to model the primary drive for a heavy-duty electrical vehicle for off-highway applications. Using high fidelity models developed by Opal-RT, the simulator models a single Induction Motor (IM) drive, supplied by parallel inverters, complete with signal conditioning for hardware-in-the-loop testing.
	TATA Motors Tata Motors Limited is India’s largest automobile company, with revenues of Rs. 35651.48 crores (USD 8.8 billion) in 2007-08. It is the leader in commercial vehicles in each segment, and among the top three in passenger vehicles with winning products in the compact, midsize car and utility vehicle segments. The company is the world’s fourth largest truck manufacturer, and the world’s second largest bus manufacturer. Through its subsidiaries, the company is engaged in engineering and automotive solutions, construction equipment manufacturing, automotive vehicle components manufacturing and supply chain activities, machine tools and factory automation solutions, high-precision tooling and plastic and electronic components for automotive and computer applications, and automotive retailing and service operations. RT-Lab is being used for the Fuel cell and hybrid programs.
	ETAS ETAS provides comprehensive and integrated tools and tool solutions for the development and service of automotive electronic control units (ECUs). ETAS solutions can be easily included into customer processes as well as 3rd party products. With almost 700 employees, ETAS, a subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH, is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany and operates regional operations in the United States, Brazil, Japan, Korea, China, India, France, Italy, Great Britain, Sweden, and the Russian Federation. About LABCAR LABCAR is ETAS' Hardware in the Loop (HiL) system for automated testing of Electronic Control Units (ECUs). By stimulating the ECU via sensor inputs and network ports, LABCAR lets you run reproducible and comprehensive tests of virtually any driving situation – entirely without hazard to driver and vehicle. LABCAR's open, modular system architecture supports all applicable automotive standards and enables time-synchronous ECU access as well as easy integration of simulation models and hardware, also from third party vendors. ETAS Partnered with Opal-RT to extend capabilities of Hardware-in-the-Loop automotive testing systems. Close cooperation added enhanced embedded control software testing capabilities to ETAS’ LABCAR tool suite. This collaboration resulted in the launch of a new product, xEV-LABCAR, which is sold by ETAS as an extension to the company’s popular PT-LABCAR platform, specifically designed for powertrain applications.