Solutions for transportation design pain points don’t have to be daunting
Transportation engineers seeking solutions to overcome today’s most common design pain points can look to the industry’s long history of innovation for inspiration.
Beginning with the domestication of animals around 6,000 years ago, humans continually discovered more efficient means of moving goods and people before progressing to the invention of the wheel 500 years later. These developments laid the groundwork for chariots, paved roads, rail lines, sea travel and even airlines.
Today’s accelerating pace of change and innovation provides even greater opportunities.
This article examines three key topics facing today’s transportation engineer: Electrification, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and zonal architecture. Below, we evaluate some of the most common pain points and suggest solutions.
Safety:
Transportation designs rely heavily on providing safe solutions. For this reason, we've featured safety as its own topic. Battery Management Systems monitor temperature and control the charge rate for optimal performance. ADAS systems ensure safe operation for both the vehicle as well as all other vehicles and pedestrians. In zonal architecture, signal speed and integrity provide for an uneventful drive.
Electrification:
Electrification is top of mind for engineers now and that’s no surprise considering 6.5 million electric vehicles (EVs) were sold in 2021.
Adoption of EVs in the passenger market outpaces commercial EVs. However, the commercial market will benefit.
Electrification goes beyond powering vehicles. Traction control, smart suspension, power-assisted steering and intelligent lighting — all are features that benefit from electrification.
These advancements don’t come without obstacles, however. Both manufacturers and consumers are mindful of issues like cost, range/infrastructure, weight and heat.
Understanding trade-offs is key. For example, reducing cost and weight could be as simple as finding the smallest, most cost-effective solution. Designers also need to consider the quality and power-handling abilities of the components since they’ll be used in harsh environments. Cost, weight and quality considerations are often at odds in trade-off considerations.
Navigating these obstacles requires cutting-edge technology in power components, microcontrollers, memory and connectors that can withstand the harsh environment of the transportation industry. Avnet has the technical experts and manufacturing partners to help guide you through these obstacles.
ADAS:
ADAS technologies help drivers avoid accidents or mitigate the severity of accidents when they occur. These systems use various sensors and cameras to detect objects, pedestrians, other vehicles and road conditions, and then provide drivers with warnings or automatic actions.
We tend to think of ADAS as a newer concept. However, it was used in the 1950s with the adoption of the anti-lock braking system. Since then, the systems advanced to include features such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, collision avoidance and blind spot detection. These features are often integrated into modern vehicles and are designed to provide drivers with additional information about their surroundings, as well as to automate certain aspects of driving to increase safety and reduce driver workload.
Adaptive cruise control, for example, uses radar or cameras to detect the distance between the vehicle and the car ahead and automatically adjusts the speed of the vehicle to maintain a safe following distance. Lane departure warnings alert drivers when they start to drift out of their lane, and collision avoidance systems can detect potential accidents and apply the brakes to avoid or mitigate the impact.
Overall, ADAS technologies are designed to enhance the safety of drivers and passengers on the road by providing additional information and automating certain aspects of driving. As engineers, it's essential to understand the capabilities of these systems and to design them to be reliable, accurate and safe for use in real-world driving conditions.
Six ADAS levels establish standard technical specifications that describe the capabilities and functions of these systems. The levels were established by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and are commonly referred to as the SAE J3016 standard. Each level represents an increasing degree of automation and sophistication.
Here's a brief description of each:
- Level 0, no automation: This level represents a traditional vehicle with no ADAS features. The driver is responsible for all driving tasks.
- Level 1, driver assistance: This level includes features such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and automatic emergency braking. These features provide some level of automation but still require the driver to remain attentive and responsible for the vehicle's operation.
- Level 2, partial automation: This level includes more advanced features such as lane centering, which can keep the vehicle centered in its lane, and automatic lane changing. At this level, the driver still needs to remain alert and ready to take control of the vehicle if necessary.
- Level 3. conditional automation: At this level, the vehicle is capable of performing most driving tasks, including steering, braking and accelerating, under certain conditions. However, the driver must be ready to take over control of the vehicle at any time if the conditions change.
- Level 4, high automation: This level represents a vehicle that can perform most driving tasks without human intervention. However, the driver may still need to take control of the vehicle in certain situations, such as during severe weather or road construction.
- Level 5, full automation: This level represents a fully autonomous vehicle that can perform all driving tasks without human intervention. There is no need for a steering wheel or pedals, and the vehicle can operate under all driving conditions.
While some vehicles have reached Level 3 automation, no vehicles on the market have reached Levels 4 or 5. Many manufacturers are working to develop vehicles with higher levels of automation.
Designing ADAS systems can present several pain points for engineers, as these systems require a high level of technical complexity and need to operate safely and reliably in a wide range of driving conditions. Some of the key challenges for ADAS designs include:
- Sensor fusion: ADAS systems rely on a variety of sensors, including cameras, radar, lidar and ultrasonic sensors, to gather data about the vehicle's surroundings. Integrating data from multiple sensors and fusing it into a coherent picture of the environment can be challenging. The work requires careful calibration, synchronization and sensor selection.
- Real-time processing: ADAS systems need to process vast amounts of data in real time to provide accurate information and timely responses to the driver. This requires high-performance computing platforms and sophisticated algorithms that can quickly analyze data and make decisions.
- Human-machine interface: ADAS systems need to provide drivers with clear and concise information about the vehicle's status and potential hazards in the environment. Creating a user-friendly and intuitive interface that effectively communicates information to the driver can be challenging.
- Security: ADAS systems are connected to the internet, and this connectivity presents potential vulnerabilities to cyberattacks. ADAS designers need to ensure that the system is secure and can resist intrusion and hacking attempts.
- Environmental variability: ADAS systems need to function reliably under a wide range of environmental conditions, including inclement weather, poor lighting and unpredictable road conditions. Ensuring that the system can operate effectively in these conditions can be challenging.
Addressing these pain points requires a high degree of technical expertise, rigorous testing and validation. Finding the right sensors, microcontrollers, memory and connector products is imperative to the success of your ADAS design.
Zonal architecture
Zonal architecture refers to a vehicle design approach that divides the vehicle into distinct zones, with each zone serving a specific function or set of functions. This approach is becoming increasingly popular in the automotive industry to improve vehicle performance, reduce weight and enhance the functionality of various vehicle systems.
In a zonal architecture design, the vehicle is divided into several functional zones, with each zone responsible for specific functions. These zones can be defined based on a variety of factors, such as the electrical system, thermal management or occupant comfort. For example, a vehicle may have separate zones for the powertrain, battery management, infotainment system and passenger comfort.
Each zone in the vehicle is typically designed as a self-contained system, with its own power source, processing unit and communication network. This approach enables each system to operate independently of the other zones, reducing the risk of system failure and making it easier to upgrade or replace individual components.
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The zonal architecture approach can offer several advantages to vehicle designers and engineers, including:
- Improved performance: Zonal architecture can enhance the performance of individual vehicle systems by enabling them to operate independently of other systems, reducing the risk of interference or system overload.
- Reduced weight: By reducing the need for long wiring and heavy cables to connect various vehicle systems, zonal architecture can help reduce the overall weight of the vehicle, improving fuel efficiency and reducing emissions.
- Increased flexibility: Zonal architecture enables designers to customize and modify individual vehicle systems without affecting other systems, making it easier to upgrade or replace components as needed.
- Simplified maintenance: The modular design of zonal architecture can make it easier to diagnose and repair individual components, reducing downtime and maintenance costs.
Overall, zonal architecture represents a significant departure from the traditional monolithic design of vehicles, offering a more flexible and efficient approach to vehicle design and development. But these advancements don’t come without some challenges as well.
- Communication: Zonal Architecture relies heavily on a robust communication system between subsystems. These require low latency, signal integrity and solid connections.
- Safety: When computational tasks are delegated to individual zones instead of a single central processor, it introduces a greater number of possible failure points. But conversely, it also provides a degree of redundancy over a single-processor type of design.
- Integration: The decision to migrate to a zonal design can mean a great deal of redesign work which can be a daunting task. However, the advantages of scalability far outweigh the challenges.
- Security: Because zonal architecture involves the integration of multiple controllers, sensors and actuators, it can be prone to physical attacks. To ensure the integrity of these systems, tamper-resistant hardware and secure storage of data are critical.
Conclusion:
Transportation is in an accelerating state of change and evolution. But unlike many other industries, transportation designs need to combine safety and security with efficiency and performance in a harsh environment that includes vibrations, chemicals and extreme temperatures.
Choosing components carefully is crucial to the outcome of any transportation design and can be a daunting task.
The right partner makes all the difference when dealing with these obstacles and getting to market as quickly as possible. From microcontrollers and memory to power conversion and connectors, Avnet has the manufacturing partners and the technical expertise to support you through design and development.