F O C U S 3 1
The subject of real-world driving emissions is a hot topic for
the entire automotive industry. Last year’s media revelations regarding
inconsistencies between results in the laboratory compared
with those in real-world driving situations put an increased focus
on developing new vehicle testing methodologies. In light of these
events, AVL hosted its second emissions workshop at the Specialty
Equipment Market Association (SEMA) garage in California.
In contrast to Europe’s new
RDE regulations – which have added
the road as mandatory test environment
for emission testing and certification,
prompting OEMs to take
a closer look on how to add Portable
Emissions Measurement Systems
(PEMS) into their workflow – it is
US regulators like the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) or the California
Air Resources Board (CARB)
that use PEMS devices to screen vehicles
to find non-normal or cheatingtype
behavior. “To be able to act on
the anomalies detected in the PEMS
measurement, regulators must prove
that this behavior is reoccurring – so
they have to bring the results into
the lab and reproduce them there”,
explains James Williamson, Director
AVL Business Development Emissions
Systems.
To give emissions development as
well as certification engineers and
managers a better idea of AVL’s
unique integrated toolchain across
RDE and emission testing, AVL
organized a workshop which featured
live and hands-on demonstrations
for moving real-world emissions
to the lab. A highlight was
AVL’s “lab on wheels” – a vehicle
equipped with the AVL M.O.V.E.
Gas PEMS iS, which collects and
measures gaseous emissions in realtime
on the road. In contrast to other
PEMS units, AVL’s integrated toolchain
is the only one able to quickly
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The workshop’s 47-mile RDE road course
was designed by the California Air Resources Board.
and accurately replicate on-road results
back in the lab with a test driver
employing exactly what occurred
in the real world. “For this SEMA
workshop, we went one step further
and replaced the actual human
test driver with a robot pedal actuator
driven by our AVL InMotion™
system, which adds traffic and driver
simulation into the laboratory
test cycles. Complemented by our
AVL CONCERTO™ Road Converter
and the AVL iGEM Vehicle
automation system, we are able to
generate reliable data and emission
test reports”, says Eugene Mon-
drusov, AVL Content Manager for
AVL iGEM Vehicle.
The 2017 workshop at the SEMA garage
was the fourth event at which
AVL successfully showcased its integrated
toolchain for optimal Real
Driving Emissions testing in the US.
“Providing applications and tools
that are seamlessly integrated into
one entire workflow to generate reliable,
reusable data is a clear advantage
of our approach”, notes Siegfried
Roeck, Director AVL Business Development
Instrumentation. “And
this is also something our customers
appreciate and want to integrate into
their own testing environments – be
it regulators or OEMs.” <