AlTIum Designer helps VWERL achieve more automotive electronics design
Your car may already have some innovative technologies from the Volkswagen Group American Institute of Electronics (VWERL). For example, if you have a Volkswagen iPod adapter, or have used the navigation companion (Nav Companion) through the vwlabs.com website, then you are experiencing the electronic products conceived and developed by Volkswagen Group's American Institute of Electronics.
If you want to ask: What are the engineers of VWERL busy with? Cameron ChrisTIe, a senior engineer at the Institute of Electronics, will say: "We are the only R & D center of the Volkswagen Group in North America. We are like the company's" think tank "or" special team "for Volkswagen brands such as Audi, Bugatti and Lamborghini develop forward-looking technologies. "
Cameron said: "Once we have a new idea related to a new function, we will build a prototype or give some kind of demonstration. Every year, we have two semi-annual reports. At the meeting, we will demonstrate our Achievements. Recognized ideas, they will transform them into products or integrate into existing modules. Unrecognized ideas, we will terminate them in time. "
Design for the future
Volkswagen Group Electronics Institute has developed a series of exciting and forward-looking products. But if you want to secretly probe some products in development, it is almost impossible. Cameron can only reveal mature projects in the laboratory.
"By using AlTIum Designer, we designed Stanley, a participating car that participated in the DAPRA Grand Challenge.
"Stanley is a self-driving Volkswagen Touareg, which was jointly developed by us and the Stanford University racing team. The car is the result of collective wisdom. We provided the vehicle, developed all the hardware, and worked as a partner Stanford University is responsible for all software development. "
In the 132-mile race, Stanley defeated 22 other robot vehicles and won the 2005 DAPRA Unmanned Combat Vehicle Competition. Without any human assistance, it traversed the Mojave Desert in less than 7 hours and successfully completed the mission. It won a grand prize of 2 million US dollars with brilliant results.
In addition, VWERL developed the autonomously driven Volkswagen Passat Junior sedan for the DAPRA City Challenge 2007. In this competition, Junior must drive autonomously in the complicated traffic environment of the city, and complete complex movements without manual assistance, such as paralleling, overtaking, parking, and crossing intersections.
"Several PC devices in the trunk of the car will be responsible for the control of the throttle, turn time and parking time. These computers are connected to the car through the CAN bus of the car's communication hub. In addition, the throttle and turn signals , Gear selection, steering and braking devices are all controlled through the CAN interface. Therefore, in this project, we must build many circuit boards connected to the computer through the CAN bus.
Junior achieved great success in the City Challenge, won the runner-up, and won a grand prize of 1 million US dollars.
In addition to Stanley and Junior, Cameron also develops electronic products for concept cars. In 2007, Cameron and the VWERL team jointly developed entertainment system electronics for the Audi Cross Quattro Coupe concept car that participated in the Los Angeles Auto Show.
"We have jointly developed a new generation of entertainment system, which not only uses Google Earth, supports Slacker Radio, but also integrates voice control functions. For this project, we must tailor this car show to develop a central control panel And steering wheel control mechanism. The design of this system is very compact, and the complex circuit board needs to carefully control the position of its various buttons. "
"In this project, we made full use of the AlTIum integrated database with supplier links. Through it, you can put component information on the schematic. In addition, the Altium BOM generator has brought me huge benefits. , It can greatly simplify our work. "
The evolving electronics industry
Caeron has been with VWERL for more than two years, during which he developed various excellent electronic products, some of which have been mentioned above. Therefore, when someone asked about the biggest challenge in VWERL's work, he replied: "Our electronic design is becoming more and more complex, the density of the board is increasing day by day, we use more components and require multiple circuit boards And assemble them ... If you ca n’t arrange all the devices on a single board, you have to use multiple boards, and you need to manage the connections between these boards. "
So, how does Cameron manage this increasing complexity?
"I like to set up as many design rules as possible, and let Altium manage them. This can prevent mistakes. In addition, I also like to use Altium's language query system, which helps us select components based on certain criteria and one-time Modify the parameters of the set of components. The language query system helps designers better manage the editing objects. "
"In addition, the Altium integrated environment also helps to establish a link between the schematic and the design of the circuit board. The advantage is that all design changes made in an editor can be updated to a common database. Therefore, if Altium Designer can automatically update all relevant design files for changes made in an editor. The integrated environment also means that I can use the 'rooms' feature to help me copy and reuse a part of the board. Although these are small things, adding them up bit by bit helps us solve big problems. "
At the same time, Altium software also often keeps the software updated to make it unique from time to time. Cameron often mentioned that VWERL has been updating Altium software, so that the software always keeps the "latest and best" status. This greatly simplifies the development of a new generation of design solutions for the team, because in any case, if the tools are not advanced enough, if you want to develop "industry-class" electronic products is no different than talking on paper?
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