Development of hardware-in-the-loop simulator for testing embedded system of automatic transmission

Drivers are becoming more fatigued and uncomfortable with increase in traffic density, and this condition can lead to slower reaction time. Consequently, they may face the danger of traffic accidents due to their inability to cope with frequent gear shifting. To reduce this risk, some drivers prefer automatic transmission (AT) over manual transmission (MT). The AT offers more superior drivability and less shifting shock than the MT; therefore, the AT market share has been increasing. The AT is controlled by an electronic control unit (ECU), which provides better shifting performance. The transmission control unit (TCU) is a higher-valueadded product, so the companies that have advanced technologies end to evade technology transfer. With more cars gradually using the ECU, the TCU is expected to be faster and more efficient for organic communication and arithmetic processing between the control systems than the 16-bit controller. In this paper, the model of an automatic transmission vehicle using MATLAB/Simulink is developed for the Hardware in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation with a 32-bit embedded system, and also the AT control logic for shifting is developed by using MATLAB/Simulink. The developed AT control logic, transformed automatically by real time workshop toolbox, is loaded to a 32-bit embedded system platform based on Freescale's MPC565. With both vehicle model and 32-bit embedded system platform, we make the HIL simulation system and HIL simulation of AT based on real time operating system (RTOS) is performed. According to the simulation results, the developed HIL simulator will be used for the performance test of embedded system for AT with low cost and effort.