Validation of a Driverless Railway Vehicle Control Unit Algorithms Through Real-Time Vehicle Simulation

The use of Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in vehicle requires them to be widely tested before the first physical prototype is developed. This is even more important when the vehicle is unmanned because most critical tasks are demanded to the control unit without a human supervision. This paper presents a Hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) test bench used to validate the control algorithm of the Vehicle Control Unit (VCU) of a Driverless Railway Vehicle (DLRV). The VCU has the duty to control the traction motor and the pneumatic braking systems but has also to control the hybrid powertrain and its configuration. The test bench is then built in Simulink Real Time environment where the vehicle model is implemented. The model communicates with the VCU through CAN BUS communication as it will operate on the real vehicle.