Advanced Urban Vehicle: tight U-turns through torque vectoring

October 21, 2015

By eeNews Europe

Automotive

An electric Twist Beam with near-wheel motor and an innovative front axle with a turning angle of up to 75 degrees ensure high agility. Thanks to the high wheel angle, combined with torque vectoring at the rear axle, the turning circle diameter is less than 6,50 metres (21.45 feet), enabling the AUV to make a U-turn on a normal two-lane street.

Two driver assistance systems stand out of the usual crowd: With Smart Parking Assist, the AUV manoeuvres into just about any parking gab, no matter how tight it may be. This manoeuvre can be controlled through a smart handheld device, be it a smart phone or a smart watch. In addition, the vehicle’s cloud-based assistance function that turns down the driving torque in good time before a curve – thus, it reduces the speed without any mechanical intervention. Though a touch recognition and a display at the steering wheel the driver is in continuous contact with the AUV.

The vehicle combines the expertise of ZF and its recently acquired subsidiary TRW in the fields of mechatronics and driver assistance. The combined product spectrum of both companies enables the group to soon develop new product designs. In this context, ZF highlights in particular the recuperation in hybrid vehicles including brake blending. The combination with predictive environment sensing could make such cars particularly safe and efficient. Tightly entangling brakes, steering, active suspension systems with radar and camera-based sensing makes it possible to push the limits of the driving dynamics and increase the vehicle’s safety. Processing camera signals and utilising them to control steering, brake and Active Kinematics Control (AKC) can stabilise the ride and prevent sideways slip. Likewise, the information provided by the camera, the system can adjust the damping hardness to uneven ground; this feature is known as “predictive damping”.