The 3Ccar project aims to address the vehicle control architecture and its subsystems in order to achieve the next level of efficiency. Therefore, to develop suchlike semiconductor-based solutions, the 3Ccar brings together the critical mass for a multidisciplinary consortium with 50 partners from 11 countries covering the complete value chain from the semiconductor supplier up to the vehicle manufacturer. That is why on the 9th and 10th of December 2015 the 3Ccar consortium members convened a meeting of over 40 scientists across a range of disciplines, active in the field of automotive and electro-motive research and industry, in Málaga. During this high-level event, consortium members shared the current and future research strategy for 3Ccar

Domain 1: Power electronics (Chargers, DC/DC Converters, Inverters) and Powertrain & Motors

Representatives from Domain 1 started their discussion with a focus on the most pressing challenge for inverter products: power demand within vehicles is increasing – in fact it is at the very limits – and after these limits are crossed, numerous issues will arise. Possible solutions for this important challenge that were discussed were the following: ways to increase the voltage; near-wheel motors; recuperative breaking; power steering; electric suspension; sophisticated cooling systems Challenges and solutions were also discussed with their potential applications in other transport industries like public transportation, agricultural and forestry vehicles, and small aircrafts. A big step on the Heat management and Magnetic circuit problem was the discussion of a virtualisation of the sensors needed everywhere.The future vehicle was envisioned as a system encompassing the shift of control items towards a centralised cloud, with a number crunching unit within the car (the control strategy). In this context, cost-effective security and reliability features were noted as the key aspects to have a fail-safe operation.

Domain 2: Cabin & Body and Storage systems & Batteries

In the Second Domains discussion the starting theme was a discussion about an improvement of the battery effiency.

The main challenges that were identified for the batteries’ aspect of the 2^nd Domain:

• Engineering challenges in battery pack design – the shapes of the cells, architecture of the packs, reduction of non-active material, thermal management
• Battery management systems’ challenges: extending the lifetime, determining the state-of-charge and remaining useful life, and ensuring safety (safe operating area and voiding any risk of thermal runaway), with maximal cost-efficiency.
• Reliability of small cells vs. large cells

One of the conclusions of the discussion was that the performance of the battery pack can be greatly improved and total costs of ownership can be reduced if cell and electronics are produced together.

Another Way discussed was the improvement of the recuperation systems that the car could reuse 100% of its energy and the battery would only be used to accelerate the vehicle.

New Design possibilities for the body and the Cabin were envisioned. The new cabin and body structure must meet the future demands for lower energy consumption and the changed management of the available space. composite materials could be used to reduce weight and make the cost effective and comfortable. Visions on Car glass research and the use of solar panels and photo organic parts are also parts of the discussion.

Domain 3: Challenges and Human Factors & Ergonomics

Representatives from Domain 3 addressed the more philosophical and behavioural aspects of the future vehicles. The consortium believes that the human factor of scepticism can be changed via education and advertisement, and the current trends in both Europe and Asia confirm this belief. Today the social acceptance of EV is on a positive trend. An important challenge is to call forth the users acceptance of the high price of the EV and the benefits of these vehicles. The conclusion of this debate was the both the 3Ccar, and the automotive industry overall, has to make an “offer, which people will like to choose”. To be widely accepted, the future technology-enhanced electric vehicles have to offer affordable, high technology, high functionality and be from a new kind of industry.

Domain 4: System integration and Simulation, Verification & Validation

The simulation aspects within the 3Ccar project are seen as a way to unify the domains, which allows a holistic and more unified approach. Simulation helps define a system, benchmark against competitors, foresee the costs, and avert risks.

The Strength/ Weakness/ Opportunity/ Thread Analysis was discussed for the 3Ccar project, with the following result:

The future envisioned for the 4^th domain’s simulation was described as:

• Complex vehicle & system multi-domain models
• Real time operating atmosphere/environment
• 3D info from roads & city surroundings
• Virtual sensors, actuators and control algorithms
• Modelling of aging, wear and faults of elements
• Complex Artificial Intelligence for vehicles / traffic / pedestrians
• Challenging computing time
• Big Data for multidomainpost processing & re-design
• Cloud collaborative computing...
• Hardware, Human, Infrastructure,..XIn the Loop

4^th domain’s representatives agreed that with the current trend of transport moving from individual vehicles towards cyber-physical systems, holistic approach with detailed simulations (of nearly entire world) is needed. An interesting future perspective was envisioned for perception enhancement and user experience: the automotive industry could team up with the gaming industry, to gain valuable know-how, video and other games have demonstrated the addictive potential of well-designed sensory stimuli and cognitive tasks.

To manage the System Integration. The different components of the System have to be looked at and their faultless functioning ensured, before the entire system is put together. Another important aspect of the system integration was the fact that different components of the system must be designed in a way as to not rely on one supplier to prevent monopolisation.

Domain 5: Control and Communication

The high speed communication’s supply chain follows an evolutional approach for different functionalities of the future vehicle. We are now somewhere between SAE level 3 and 4 and the ADAS System starts to provide functionality in safety relevant applications but the driver still has to take the full responsibility.

The following challenges were identified for communications, and partners defined appropriate mitigations as summarized below.

The Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis has been conducted for Communications, with the following results:

Within the 3Ccar project, the following break through opportunities were introduced: Centralized back-bone architecture implementation; Platform approach as quasi standard accepted in industry; Aerospace ideas in safety architectures successfully adopted for automotive use; Independence of application from integration and communication; Strict partitioning of applications in multi core architectures.

Partners working on the Communications also presented their vision for the year 2030 in automotive advancements:

• eVehicles will have conquered 30% of the market (new registrations)
• Architectures will be using centralized back-bone technology
• Partitioning of applications will become a standard
• Wireless technologies will provide safety/security services and applications will be widely spread

Regulations and taxes will support eVehicle purchase rather than punishing for “pollution” in combination with conventional cars (no difference between conventional cars and eVehicles)

In terms of Control, 3Ccar partners are facing the following challenges:

• To provide high-performance control platform at affordable price
• To allow new functionality
• Reduction of complexity while processing data from network of sensors located on relatively large area and controlling actuators on large area

The idea is to integrate the function of several independent controllers to one controller. But its more complex to coordinate one Controller for all than much for all. That needs to have a more thoughtful Software Development. With a high amount of automatic generated code

Most of the Control platforms are based on a combinaton of microcontrollers with FPGA. But ints neccesary to to take into account the interests of the semiconductor Partners involved in the project.

Therefore, the key considerations for the Control domain following the meeting in Málaga are the following:

• Two target applications, each needing its platform:
• Aim to use MBD + automatic tools
• Importance of understanding requirements from other supply chains, but only to a point.
• First and crucial step: state-of-the-art (very extensive work). Benchmarks and tool-chain follow.
• Conceive in a way to minimize dependency with development of powertrain others
• Develop, prototype and demonstrate functionality using HiL setups
• Emphasize research on elaborate algorithms

Outcome of the 3Ccar Málaga Vision Workshop 

Going forward, the 3Ccar consortium wants to build on the momentum of the workshop in bringing together the different domains into a community with one shared vision.

• The 3Ccar consortium needs to utilize its cross domain knowledge and inspiration from different research areas and domains;

• Consortium partners wish to stipulate a continuous discussion which enables the utmost understanding of the hurdles from top of the application down to its separate components, such as semiconductors and batteries and even technologies;

• For sure, the extended discussions during this workshop were a successful experiment to understand and translate 3Ccar’s vision into its mission and objectives. The detailed and inspirational presentations from the numerous leaders of the 5 domains were an excellent start for discussions, contributing towards an envisioned successful implementation of our 3Ccar project.