Computer control of a robotic driver for emission tests

The authors describe the rationale behind the computer control of a self-learning robotic driver for a car with simultaneous operation of the clutch and accelerator pedals, i.e., with manual gear shift. The H_∞ principle is well suited for this purpose, producing a robust and soft-acting multivariable controller; the design is executed on a workstation in a few seconds, employing up-to-date design tools. The control of the six-axis robot is performed by a VME-based industrial computer board in 5 ms intervals. Preliminary tests are shown. The high performance control system is in line with industrial standards, with regard to programming language, user interface, network connectivity and hardware modules. Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools are used to speed up software development and to provide documentation at every stage of design