In order to improve system quality, eliminate costly hardware builds, and accelerate product development and market launch, hardware and control system integration must occur early in the vehicle development process. Integration should be done in a coordinated, integrated and collaborative manner, while hardware engineering continues in parallel with virtual, math-based analysis and design support. “GM recognized the need to increase reliance on virtual engineering design and analysis, and after exhaustive research and evaluation, determined that Argonne National Laboratory had the best resources and expertise to develop the required software tools due to their demonstrated capabilities and strategies for modeling and simulation of complex vehicle systems“, said Anthony Will, Manager, Model-Based Controls and Architecture at GM.

Argonne, in collaboration with (GM), developed a new "plug-and-play" modeling tool with support from the U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Program. Autonomie addresses the automotive industry’s need to reduce costs by accelerating the development and introduction of advanced automotive propulsion system technologies. “To reduce cost and time to production while properly evaluating and developing advanced technologies, OEMs are increasingly relying on Model Based Design”, said Argonne manager Aymeric Rousseau, who led Autonomie's development. "To facilitate this goal, a standard plug-and-play model architecture and framework for interfaces of hardware and controls models is required to integrate and manage models of varying degrees of fidelity and complexity. Autonomie gives us just that.”

Autonomie replaces vehicle level integration of hardware and control components at the end of the design process with the integration of mathematical models of components at the beginning of the process, thus improving efficiency, saving time and reducing costs. “Autonomie is a fundamental game changer for math-based design, development and engineering of automotive systems and controls”, said Mike Steele, Manager, Controls Modeling and Architecture at GM.

Autonomie has now been selected as the standard tool for Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) for GM's next generation of hybrid and electric vehicle controls. "Before using Autonomie, the process to manually integrate the controls software with the hardware models took 2 or more weeks. Now, it takes seconds to minutes to accomplish”, said Greg Hubbard, Senior Manager of Electrification Controls at GM. "With Autonomie, we expect to accelerate our development of the next generation Volt as well as the next generation Chevrolet Malibu with eAssist."

“Overall, Autonomie facilitates multi-disciplinary math-based collaborative engineering work, resulting in reuse of models across disciplines, optimizing designs, improving efficiency of processes, reducing development time and cost, and bringing new technologies to market faster. It is a major fundamental accomplishment for the industry”, said Mike Steele.

Autonomie development is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

For more information: www.autonomie.net - use cases, trial download

Autonomie Technical Questions – Aymeric Rousseau, Vehicle Modeling, Simulation and Control Section Manager