Industry : Automotive

Category : Turn-key solution

The Challenge :

To develop a system to measure the parameters related to braking such as braking distance, brake pad temperature, brake hydraulic pressure etc in a motorbike under different road conditions in real time.

The Technology :

Hardware : High Speed Data Acquisition cards, FieldWorks 2200 model, NI Signal Conditioning modules.
Software   : LabVIEW

The Solution :

The brake test system was designed to acquire real time road test data. The following sensors were used in the data acquisition system:
• Rotation Encoder – for rotational displacement and the wheel speed
• Thermocouple – for pad temperature during braking
• Pressure sensor – for the brake hydraulic line pressure
• Accelerometer – for the instantaneous acceleration of the vehicle

The FieldWorks FW2000 series computer from Kontron Mobile Computing suited the application both in terms of size and ruggedness. The FieldWorks 2200 model did not have an integrated display, so a small sized integrated keyboard and LCD display were interfaced with the FieldWorks computer through the RS232 port. This provided the flexibility to send commands, set parameters, and get the feedback from the system like the braking distance, temperature etc. The bike’s 12-volt battery powered the computer, the user-interface kit, and the signal conditioning modules. The data acquired by the different sensors was stored in the on-board computer. At the end of the test, the on-board computer could be connected to an Ethernet network and the data could be downloaded on to another PC for off-line analysis. Thus Soliton was able to design a rugged brake tester which could measure the braking distance to an accuracy of 1% over a distance of 30 meters.

Engineering Challenges :

• Rugged system - Design a rugged in-vehicle system to handle vibrations and accidental falls.
• Off-line analysis - Provide off-line analysis capability in the system.
• On-board analysis - Provide on-board analysis capabilities for the tester to see the results of the test while on the road.
• Data logging - Need to log brake pressure, temperature and speed throughout the test. Since the entire test would span only a few seconds , the system had to be designed to log data at the rate of 1000S/s

Value Addition :

• Flexibility - The system was designed to allow the user to set up different tests during the road trials.
• Extendibility - The use of open PC standards and general purpose data acquisition hardware provided scope for expansion of the system.
• Ergonomic design – The system design was such that it could be easily mounted on the motorbike.
• Accuracy - The system provided a braking accuracy of 1% over the distance of 30m
• Security - The system was designed to handle the wheel-lock conditions using the accelerometer data.

Commendation :

This application was one of the finalists under the automotive category for the NI Week 2001 Paper Contest.