Electromechanical actuators for automotive applications exploiting power line communication

Modern cars are equipped with tens of digitally controlled electromechanical actuators, that are managed by a main vehicle control unit through suitable communication networks. Such networks are based on serial protocols and exploit as physical layers dedicated electric cables, which are often difficult to install and to maintain. In this paper a power line communication approach is presented enabling existing power cables to provide the physical layer for standard automotive communication protocols, or to act as a low cost backup physical layer to critical communication lines, such those related to the drive by wire. According to the proposed approach suitable transceivers exploiting the LIN protocol have been developed, as well as suitable means to decouple data and power transmission. A prototype power line network has been realised and tested, featuring a percentage of error largely suitable for non real-time critical control applications