For more than 10 years, Acsystème has cooperated with PSA in designing innovative powertrains. These innovations deal with the transmission system (robotised gearbox, clutch control …) or the whole powertrain, particularly with hybrid systems. In the last few years, Acsystème has acquired strong competencies in modelling and conceiving control for this kind of systems.
Projects of this kind generally go through the following steps:
Matlab/Simulink/Stateflow environment is used to develop these projects. In a first step, tasks are realised by performing simulations on a computer. Then, real-time validation of system control, on simulator and/or real system, is achieved with automatic code generation tools (Real-Time Workshop) and a platform dedicated to fast prototyping.
Most of the projects we have been brought to work on are confidential. However, we can do a brief overview of one of those projects to illustrate our involvement with more accuracy.
For several years, PSA has commercialised semi-automatic transmissions (SAT), which names are “Sensodrive”, “BPM6” and “ETG”. This technology offers automation functions (removal of the clutch pedal, automatic switching gear management) at lower cost than a traditional automatic transmission (AT). Moreover, SAT’s efficiency is better than AT. Unfortunately, SAT are often criticised for an uncomfortable driving experience due to the torque fracture related to the necessity of opening the clutch while gear shifting.
During the exploratory phase, we worked on control system creation for SAT to:
The following article presents the latest SAT developed by PSA group, the ETG: http://automobile.challenges.fr/dossiers/20131016.LQA5237/etg-quand-la-boite-pilotee-peugeot-citroen-devient-frequentable.html (in French)
These many projects helped Acsystème acquire substantial experience in the fields of:
Sébastien Saliou, November 2014
