Future Chassis Systems: Evolution or Revolution?

The Electrification of the powertrain, digitalization of the vehicle and automated driving are the major drivers of the transformation in the automotive industry. The implementation of the resulting requirements is taking place at the level of the E/E and the vehicle architecture in parallel. Requirements such as easy scalability, fast upgradeability and learning ability as well as reduced complexity call for fundamental changes in the E/E architecture. The key concepts are centralization and zonalization as well as a standardized abstraction layer between the hardware and the vehicle functions/software. Legacy control units - especially for safety-critical functions such as braking, steering - are maintained at this stage of evolution. This creates the foundations for the long-term goal of creating a standardized central server architecture. At the same time, there is a similar development in the vehicle architecture. More and more companies are showing studies and, in some cases, production-ready implementations of so-called rolling chassis and corner modules. In this lecture, important aspects will be highlighted that are not only relevant for the rolling chassis. The electrification of the brake is shown with the associated development. Another topic is the central control of all vehicle motion actuators - brakes, steering, propulsion and chassis. This is also the case with the introduction of the rolling chassis, which requires a clearly defined, electrical and mechanical interface to easily separate the cabin and chassis.