Student Competition: Physical Modeling Training, Part 5: Vehicle Drive and Control

From the series: Student Competition: Physical Modeling Training

Swarooph Seshadri, MathWorks

Learn about vehicle drive and basic control concepts including how to implement a DC motor drive mechanism, PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) actuation, closed loop control of the vehicle, running simulations with imported drive cycle data, and importing drive cycle data from Microsoft Excel into MATLAB.

This training is applicable for both combustion and electric engine teams. While control concepts are explored with DC motors, a similar workflow can be applied to combustion engines for throttle control. Importing drive cycle data from Microsoft Excel into MATLAB is also covered.

A battery powered DC motor system is used to learn PWM actuation. After testing this as a standalone component, you will integrate this system into the existing vehicle model with vehicle body, tires, brakes and transmission modeled in the ‘Powertrain Modeling’ video. You will then implement a closed loop speed control system for the vehicle. Finally, you will learn how to import drive cycle data into MATLAB to run your simulation models.

We would like to thank the Virginia Tech Motorsports team for providing us with data about their vehicle, motors, engines, and batteries for use in this training.