T E C H N O L O G Y MODULES

MONITORING ELECTRONICS
THROUGH BODY CONTROL MODULES
Delphi has indigenously developed Body Control Modules (BCMs) for commercial as well as passenger vehicle
segment at its Technical Centre India (TCI), Bangalore. The BCM records all the vital details regarding the health
of the vehicle, including tyre-pressure monitoring, rain-sensor wiper functions, interior lighting control and ambient
light sensing. In this article, Delphi explains the development process of the BCM it supplies to Mahindra &Mahin-
dra, called Mahindra Body Function Module (MBFM), and its focus on the commercial vehicles sector.

AUTHORS

G NAMBI GANESH
is Director,Technical Center India
Bangalore, Delphi Electronics &
Safety

MOTIVATION created from numerous combination pos-

A vehicle today comprises of various
modules, including air-conditioning, inte-
rior lighting, door locks, power windows,
power mirrors, air conditioning, immobi-
liser system, and central locking, among
others. And each module requires a Body
Control Module (BCM) to check, regulate
and operate electronic accessories
throughout the car. The BCM gathers all
these separate modules under one system
so that they can function together to mon-
itor and control various electronic acces-
sories in a vehicle’s body.
The BCM plays a deciding role in cost
efficiency as they allow for the amount of
wiring within the vehicle to be signifi-
cantly reduced by providing interfaces
through vehicle bus-systems. Depending
on the architecture approach, different
variants of central control units can be
sibilities. And that is exactly what Delphi
is creating, when designing these central
control units.
PRODUCT DESIGN
The BCM is considered as an electrical
centre of the vehicle, with the purpose of
controlling all the common electrical func-
tions within the vehicle, as well as some
of the electronics that is now present in
the vehicle and does not have a dedicated
hardware. The architectures of the BCM
can be defined as:
:: High electrical/ low electronic content
(Centralised)
:: Low electrical/ high electronic content
(Distributed)
Delphi strives to optimise the Electrical/
Electronics (EE) system as per OEM

54 www.autotechreview.com
requirements. An example of optimised
architecture of high-end BCM is the one
the company developed for Mahindra &
Mahindra – Mahindra Body Function
Module (MBFM). The MBFM is a cost-
effective design that contains a powerful
set of features, while still minimising
packaging size. The MBFM has a highly
flexible design with 32-bit µC architecture
and wide variety of interfaces. It has been
developed based upon Building Block
(BB) approach and customised for partic-
ular vehicle characteristics.
The key functionalities of the MBFM are:
:: Remote Keyless Entry (RKE): The
remote keyless entry feature allows the
remote locking/ unlocking of doors as
well as activating the alarm system.
The RKE feature includes requesting
the central door locking system to lock
all doors and flash the turn lamps as
visual feedback. The RKE also arms
the anti-theft system. In case any one
of the door or bonnet is open, a visual
alarm is activated detecting failure to
lock the door.
:: Integrated TPMS: The Tyre Pressure
Monitoring System (TPMS) monitors
the air pressure inside the tyres. The
system will provide alerts in case of
low air pressure, high air pressure and
air leakage from any of the tires. The
TPMS continues to provide an alert
until the problem is rectified. The
TPMS has individual sensors for each
tire that are monitored at regular
intervals during driving as well as
when the vehicle is stationary. The
RKE and TPMS have an integrated
receiver in MBFM.
:: Static Bending Lamp Control: The
XUV 500 headlamps sport a unique
feature called ‘Static Bending’, (4).
When the car is taking a turn, static
bending lamps help in automatically
illuminating the curve path turn, thus
improving visibility dramatically. The
turns of the vehicle and road turns are
detected by the MBFM using either the
steering wheel sensor or the turn indi-
cator signal provided by the driver.
:: Smart Rain-Sensing Wipers &
Intelligent Light-Sensing Headlamps:
The MBFM performs rain and light
sensing using a dedicated rain-light
sensor that provides all the relevant
information of ambient lighting as well
as rain concentration at any time to
autotechreview O c tob er 2 0 1 2 Volu m e 1 | Issu e 10
make a suitable decision. The feature
allows automatic detection of rain and
automatically turns the wipers on or
off. The system can also detect the
intensity of rain and accordingly
adjusts the wiper speed. The feature
also detects the ambient light intensity
to detect daylight, as well as situations,
where vehicle enters a tunnel or
parking lot.
:: Door Ajar and Puddle Lamps: Mahin-
dra’s XUV500 is equipped with door
ajar and puddle lamps. Door ajar
lamps help safe entry and exit from the
vehicle, and act as a warning indicator
to alert on ‘door open’ condition. On
the other hand, puddle lamps help to
illuminate the door side road, when
the door is open, making your exit
safer. The MBFM monitors these sen-
sors during start and stop of the vehi-
cle to generate the alarms.
So far, the Technical Center India Delphi
has developed two kinds of BCMs for
UVs like Mahindra Bolero and XUV 500.
CV APPLICATIONS
Meanwhile, the Delphi BCM meant for
trucks and buses performs all basic func-
tions that are needed for modern passen-
ger cars, while remote keyless entry and
immobiliser functions are standard. The
BCM records all details regarding the
health of the vehicle, all of which can be
downloaded easily during the vehicle’s
diagnostics stage.
It is vital that functionality, wiring har-
ness and power supply of the whole vehi-
cle electrical system is perfectly harmo-
nised. Central control units provide an
enormous functional density and the Del-
phi BCM combines classic power distribu-
tion and the safeguarding of relay and
fuse boxes with the advantages of intelli-
gent, micro-controller controlled systems.
Highly integrated modules, an optimised
and innovative packaging technology, as
well as cutting-edge design and produc-
tion methods have been used in the com-
pany’s products.
The BCM supplies vehicle occupants
with visual and audible information and
controls various vehicle functions. Offer-
ing standard features such as lock control,
interior/ exterior lighting control and
motor and relay drive outputs, the BCM is
capable of interfacing with the vehicle's
instrument cluster, HVAC and theft deter-
rent via CAN or discreet.
In order to leverage its BCM to the next
level, Delphi has developed a 24 V mod-
ule for the commercial vehicle segment.
The electrical system in CVs uses either
12 V or 24 V, and Delphi has solution for
both variants. The mechanical packaging
(including connectors) is same for both
variants of the BCM. The colours of the
connectors are different to ensure there
are no issues during vehicle assembly,
and help differentiate between 12 V and
24 V BCMs. The BCM application algo-
rithm remains same for both the 12 V and
24 V systems. This is AUTOSAR complaint
so that application is independent of
lower layer software.
The module offers the functionality
expected in a standard BCM, including an
RF receiver for remote keyless entry and a
tyre pressure monitoring system. The
company will supply the BCM to major
commercial vehicle manufacturers this
year. The body computer becomes com-
plete with an immobiliser.
CONCLUSION
At its Technical Center India, Delphi offers
extensive engineering capability for the
BCM both for its global and local custom-
ers. A team of engineers works on several
advanced engineering systems, including
embedded software, mechanical engineer-
ing, product engineering design and other
automotive engineering related fields.
Delphi uses standard production build-
ing blocks to minimise development time
and provide low-cost, low-mass solutions.
It has a separate development section that
works consistently on the development of
modular systems in order to guarantee
their efficient use. In the areas of soft-
ware, circuitry hardware and mechanical
design in particular, there are close inter-
actions between the specific requirements
of the central control units and the design
of the modular systems.
BCMs control almost every system of a
vehicle – from engine to suspension – and
OEMs are increasingly focusing on the up-
integration of this technology.
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