CHALLENGE
A major motorcycle manufacturer determined they needed to increase the efficiency of their testing. They were incurring rework with countless failed tests of their new antilock brake & traction control system (ABS), which relied on playing back CAN (controller area network) data in an open loop configuration on a HIL (Hardware-in-the-Loop) system. The lack of feedback required to mimic normal system dynamics caused numerous errors and required manual processing of data after the test, which was subjective and time-consuming.
The DISTek team was tasked with closing the loop and building an automated system to validate the data at any point during the test.
SOLUTION
The DISTek team began designing a new testing system and identifying features to address these issues:
- Generation of a high-fidelity plant model to simulate the dynamics of the motorcycle chassis and communication systems
- Integration of real ABS hardware
- Implementation of a test suite to characterize and validate the control unit’s response to various ABS events
To implement these activities into a closed-loop system, our team collaborated with a Simulink modeling team, engineers, onsite technicians, and overseas contractors. We started by constructing high-fidelity physics models and implemented a virtual rider to control the simulated movement. Then we integrated physical plumbing and brake components into the test system and mounted it to a fixture housing the hardware needed to collect internal pressure data. Finally, we integrated all the models and emphasized writing routines to create test cases, thus aiding the maintainability of new and future test cases.
RESULTS
Testing results are now generated within 5 hours instead of 2 weeks, and data validation costs have been considerably lowered. The automated evaluation of pass/fail criteria also enables the test suite to be directly linked to the requirement set for easy traceability of testing status and results.
To discuss your software test needs and discover how DISTek can help, reach out to our Sales Team today!
