Handling System Complexity in Zonal E/E Architectures
Jonas Maier, Hans-Christian Reuss
Abstract
As conventional electric/electronic (E/E) architectures reach their limits, new architecture concepts are being researched to make the complexity of the vehicle and its components manageable. Zonal architectures are a promising option, but there is a lack of methodology for developing them. This paper shows a method to design zonal E/E architectures, in particular their power supply. At first, the zonal vehicle power supply system (PSS) of the UNICARagil vehicle platform is presented. The UNICARagil project is a collaboration of 15 German research institutes and companies with the goal to develop disruptive modular architectures for agile automated vehicle concepts. To design a zonal, in regards of the vehicle functional architecture optimized PSS, it is necessary to cover the crucial aspects of both, the vehicle and the PSS, as well as their interfaces. A method is presented that optimizes the design of the PSS in zonal E/E architectures. The optimization is achieved by clustering the electric load positions to identify suitable positions for the zone control units (ZCU), wire harness routing by Dijkstra algorithm and integration of the entire PSS in vehicle packaging concepts. The aim is to reduce component cost, packaging restrictions and system complexity, which will result in a cut of development effort and a gain in user experience. The system complexity is therefor evaluated by metrics as well as in combination with other criteria by a simulation study.