Development of a real-time 7-DOF vehicle dynamics model

Today vehicle dynamics modelling is crucial in development of control systems and electronic components. The main cause of this growth is due to the technology of such systems, predominantly mechatronic. The aim of modelling is to obtain a mathematical-analytical description of a system which allows to investigate the relevant aspects of its behaviour and the influence that its components have on it. The more complex a model is, the more accurate the simulation of its behaviour is. The estimate of the vehicle dynamics is important to draw conclusions on driving stability, comfort and driving safety of new vehicle systems. Nowadays Hardware-In-the-Loop simulation (HIL) is one of the most important approach to verify control unit software before field test on the vehicle. In this type of simulation, one or more control unit are present deployed on a real hardware platform while others are simulated. The reason why a process is simulated usually is because the tests with the real process are too expensive or require a significant amount of time. This work of thesis, done during a curricular internship in Capgemini Engineering, is based on the development, simulation and testing of a seven-degrees of freedom (DOF) vehicle model. The modelling is done using Simulink: a platform-independent domain-specific language, while the simulation tests are made with both Simulink and VeriStand: a software that allows to test the models developed through real-time HIL simulations.