Control and optimization of a scaled-down Narrow Tilting Vehicle

Narrow Tilting Vehicles (NTV) offer a solution to the increasing traffic congestion as well as an optimization of the energy footprint of vehicles. During a previous work, an electro-mechanical demonstrator was designed and partially realized [20] to optimize the behavior of such a moving vehicle. The present report focuses on the electro-mechanical update, control and validation of the demonstrator, in order to deliver a fully functional embedded controlled system with transmission in real time of the measured and controlled parameters (speed, acceleration, odometry, tilt, torque). It started from the actual status of the demonstrator in the previous work and, based on the feedback from experience, considers the optimization of the vehicle’s functionalities to allow the optimal development of the control. The three axes of development are detailed and the choices are discussed : the mechanical design, the electronics including the nano-computer Raspberry Pi 3B, the transducers, particularly the strain gauges to measure the torque, the data management and the control, the low level integration through the CANopen/TMLCAN and the high level DTC and STC controls. Finally, an experimental validation of the demonstrator is performed and the results obtained are presented and discussed. Various future prospects for the project are proposed before concluding on the validation of the demonstrator.