Design of drive-by-wire communication network for an industrial vehicle

Drive-by-wire (DbW) is an emerging technology in the automotive environment that provides for the transmission and actuation of the driving commands by means of electric devices. The commands are entered by appropriate transducers, forwarded to electrical drives via a communication network and applied to local mechanical actuators. This paper deals with a DbW system for an industrial vehicle, at first presenting the safety requirements for the vehicle and the system architecture arranged to meet the requirements. Then, the design of the communication network is presented. The variables to be conveyed are defined and the specifications for the data exchange are established. Two communication protocols are evaluated for possible implementation. An experimental rig implementing the selected protocol is described and the tasks devised to validate the design of the communication network are illustrated