A new era of intelligent chassis is coming

In 2023, competition in the automobile industry will officially enter the second half.

To this day, I believe it is difficult for anyone to deny that the new round of automobile technology revolution kicked off by electrification has achieved unprecedented success in China. However, as many experts and scholars, including Miao Wei, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, predicted In this way, intelligence is becoming the focus of next industry competition.

But with the rapid narrowing of the second-stage industrial development window, what kind of core technologies will be needed for future automobiles? This is a question that every player in the automotive industry urgently needs to answer.

Focusing on the car chassis, when we enjoy the more exciting, convenient and feature-rich driving experience brought by car electrification and intelligence, such as fast acceleration, single-pedal mode and even brake decoupling, how can we improve it? What about a car chassis that is faster, more efficient, safer and more controllable?

This answer was answered recently at the "Exploring Bosch" technical exchange and product test drive event held at the Bosch (Hulunbuir) Automotive Technology Center.

Without the support of intelligent chassis, the automotive system is incomplete.

As an important participant and leader of change in the global automotive industry, Bosch took the lead in proposing that "the future development direction of automobiles is automation, interconnection, and electrification" more than ten years ago, and then further added "personalization" to form PACE's "four modernizations" future development strategy for smart electric travel.

For this reason, Bosch continues to explore new business directions and business models in conjunction with technological changes and market development trends in the automotive industry. Looking at smart chassis alone, Bosch also has its own profound understanding.

Zhang Ying, President of Bosch Chassis Control Systems China; Image source: Bosch

Zhang Ying, President of Bosch Chassis Control Systems China, said that if a smart car only has an ADAS system and a smart cockpit, but lacks the blessing of a smart chassis, the entire new energy vehicle system will be incomplete.

She believes that, unlike the previous single-system era, multi-system cross-domain integration has become a trend, innovatively integrating braking, steering, suspension, electric drive and other systems to create new "sparks"; secondly, A forward-looking and scalable electronic and electrical architecture, supplemented by software updates and iterations; in the end, it is not enough without an innovative hardware system, such as new braking systems and wire-controlled steering.

Therefore, for future smart cars, smart chassis has become a crucial part.

"Bosch's goal is to empower vehicles to achieve higher performance. The foundation is the chassis system, and the safety of intelligent chassis should be given top priority. Bosch focuses on how to achieve user experience, how to simplify complexity, and leave comfort, Agility and personalized space,” Zhang Ying said bluntly.

Dr. Xu Daquan, Executive Vice President of Bosch China; Image source: Bosch

Dr. Xu Daquan, executive vice president of Bosch China, added that in the past few decades, Bosch has been very influential in promoting the safety of ABS and ESP. At present, almost all cars will adopt the latest ESP control system. Next, they will consider using the automatic control system. It is fully integrated with the steering and power control systems to form an intelligent chassis as a new direction for automobile safety promotion. "From the perspective of future vehicle safety and driving experience, (intelligent chassis) will give new experiences to all OEMs."

Intelligent chassis allows everyone to become an experienced driver

Bosch (Hulunbuir) Automotive Testing Technology Center is located in Yakeshi City, Inner Mongolia. Founded in 2007, it has a land test area of ​​540,000 square meters and a lake test area of ​​1.32 million square meters. The land test area includes vehicle traction control (TCS) ramps composed of polished ice surfaces and asphalt roads, TCS Test tracks, land ABS roads, all-terrain (HDC) ramps, and land control roads composed of curves with different radii and slopes. The lake surface test area consists of several types of test tracks, such as dynamic square, separated road surface, control road and ice and snow ring. It contains compacted snow surface, polished ice surface and asphalt surface, which can meet the friction coefficient requirements under different conditions.

Thanks to its unique geographical location and climatic conditions, Yakeshi has become a professional venue for Bosch to conduct winter automotive testing. Bosch's latest smart chassis-related technologies must also undergo several rounds of testing, debugging and polishing here.

This time, at the Yakeshi test field, the Bosch Chassis Control System China team brought the vehicle dynamic control system 2.0 (VDC 2.0) and the intelligent decoupling braking system (DPB2.0) combined with 1.ESP®10: Decoupled Power Brake), distributed traction control system (dTCS: distributed Traction Control System), new energy vehicle coasting energy recovery torque control (eDTC: Electrification of Drag Torque Control), new energy vehicle intelligent drift system (iDCS: intelligent Drift Control System for NEV) and technology demonstration of Comfort Stop 2.0 (Comfort Stop 2.0).

Take the future-oriented intelligent chassis solution VDC 2.0 as an example. It has launched three versions: standard version, customized version and supreme version to meet the different needs of electrification, personalization and high-end intelligence. It innovatively introduces a feedforward control algorithm, which can predict and control vehicle dynamic development trends based on vehicle sensor information by comparing the differences between the target vehicle and the actual vehicle; at the same time, the extreme version of VDC 2.0 can also intelligently coordinate brakes and other various Chassis actuator optimizes vehicle dynamic response characteristics and ensures vehicle safety and stability.

The system covers the scalability of comprehensive coordinated control of braking, wire steering, powertrain systems and suspension. It can not only achieve safer and more stable obstacle avoidance and precise cornering, but also support customized adjustment of the driving characteristics of the target vehicle. , to meet the brand genes of different customers.

Distributed Traction Control System dTCS; Image source: Bosch

In view of possible slippage and loss of control in scenarios such as starting, releasing the accelerator (power recovery), and fast cornering of electric vehicles due to ice on the roadside in winter, Bosch has used dTCS, eDTC, DPB 2.0 and VDC 2.0 superimposed analysis to detect possible slippage and loss of control. Solutions such as axle torque distribution or steer-by-wire are effectively controlled, making travel safer and more controllable.

In addition, compared to holding the car, it may be more interesting to make the car "out of control" in a controllable state.

Based on the pursuit of vehicle driving pleasure, Bosch has also launched an intelligent drift control system (iDCS) for new energy vehicles, which can calculate Providing an appropriate torque distribution ratio between the front and rear axle motors, the driver can assist the driver to enter the drift state quickly, maintain the drift state stably, and exit the drift state safely.

New energy vehicle intelligent drift system iDCS; Image source: Bosch

It is reported that this system can expand the high-performance market without additional hardware costs, reduce the difficulty of drift control, and improve the fun of vehicle driving. This feature can also support personalized customization needs. Thanks to this, this system is expected to be officially launched on a certain performance car in the second half of this year.

From being in China for China to being in China for the world

At the same time, Bosch also values ​​China's important position in the global automotive industry.

You must know that China is not only leading the world in the direction of electrification development - both in terms of electric vehicle sales and the number of new cars launched every year, it is also among the top in the world; Chinese users are also very smart in terms of intelligence, such as smart cockpits and advanced driving assistance systems. The demand for such products is also among the highest in the world.

This requires more foreign-funded enterprises to strengthen localized research and development to more quickly and deeply digest the needs of Chinese customers. Based on this, Bosch Chassis Control Systems China entered China in 2002, and set up a new ABS production line in Suzhou the following year for localized production. In April 2005, it established a technology center in Suzhou, and now its China headquarters is located in Suzhou, focusing on It also has production bases in Chengdu, Sichuan (mainly producing ABS, ESP and wheel speed sensors) and Nanjing, Jiangsu (mainly producing intelligent boosters iBooster).

In January this year, Bosch officially announced that it would invest in the establishment of a Bosch new energy vehicle core component and autonomous driving R&D and manufacturing base in Suzhou to mainly develop and manufacture a variety of autonomous driving core technologies, including the new generation of intelligent integrated braking system IPB2 .0. Intelligent decoupling braking system.

Stefan Hartung, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bosch Group, pointed out that China is the world’s largest automotive market and is full of resilience and vitality. “As a multinational enterprise, we need to make full use of local R&D and production capabilities in China. Through continued development in China, Bosch will further enhance its global competitiveness and lay a solid foundation for leading future mobility.”