Künstliche Intelligenz hilft bei der Entwicklung von neuen Antriebskonzepten. Spannend!
Today’s powertrains feature micro hybrids with start-stop systems or mild hybrids with 48-volt systems, all the way to high-voltage hybrids with or without an external charging feature. There are six different architectures for the electrification of the internal combustion engine, ranging from the P0 arrangement with a belt-driven starter-generator (which replaces the alternator) to the P5 arrangement, where electric motors are housed in wheel hubs. The all-electric vehicle is at the far end of this spectrum. To be sure, it does without an internal combustion engine, but the powertrain itself can take a number of different forms. This makes relationships in the powertrain increasingly difficult to monitor.
One possible solution could be greater use of artificial intelligence in the development of powertrains. For example, teaming up with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), engineering services provider IAV formed the joint Research Lab for Learning from Test Data (FlaP). The lab has its own space at the DFKI facility in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and it is starting out with a staff of four. The team is due to expand quickly in coming months.
Improving data analysis
“Huge quantities of test data are produced in the development of control systems for powertrains,” said Andreas Dengel, who is in charge of the joint venture on the DFKI side. These test data are captured with numerous sensors and are stored in multidimensional data spaces. More than 100 sensors are used in today’s development equipment. “In our new research lab, we plan to use artificial intelligence and ‘deep learning’ methods to carry out so-called big data analyses in various dimensions so we can improve our understanding of the relationships within the engine,” Dengel said. The fundamental work should provide greater efficiency in the development process whileenabling the development of robust systems in an increasingly complex environment.
Matthias Schultalbers, who isin charge of the new research lab on behalf of Powertrain Mechatronics at IAV, expects the collaboration to provide better access to research results, especially on the use of AI in data analysis.A team at IAV’s company headquarters in Gifhorn in northern Germany has already been working on data analytics and its applications in control units in engines, transmissions and power electronics. “The new research lab is supposed to apply AI and deep learning methods to systematically evaluate IAV test data, filtering out deviations from normal operations and analyzing their causes,” Schultalbers said. To make this possible, IAV has built a high-performance GPU cluster that is capable of processing huge quantities of data.
