Vehicle windscreen wiper mathematical model development and optimisation for model based hardware-in-the-loop simulation and control

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations have long been used to test electronic control units (ECUs) and software in car manufactures. Accurate Model based HIL simulation (AMHIL) is considered as a most efficient and cost effective way for exploration of new design and development of new products, particularly in calibration and parameterization of vehicle stability controller. The paper presents our recent work in developing an accurate real-time mathematical model for a Jaguar windscreen wiper system, which will be adopted for the HIL tests to the vehicle body control module (BCM). Based on the electro-mechanical engineering principles, the mathematical model of the windscreen wiper system is developed and the unknown model parameters are identified using Genetic Algorithms. Model has been tested by operating at different working conditions, e.g. varied voltage input levels. Real-time implementation of the mathematical model onto dSPACE Ecoline HIL simulator is explained, and the configurations of the laboratory test rig are reported.