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PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL.

61, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 1973

Computer-Controlled Engine Test Cell for EngineeringExperiments

JAMES H. RILLINGS, WENDELLD. CREPS, AND LAKSHMI S. VORA

Abstract-A computer-controlled engine test cell was developed for conducting complex transient experiments with automotive engines. The test celluses a minicomputer with 16 OOGword 16-b core a memory to perform data acquisition and closed-loop control of the engine and dynamometer. A tabladriven real-time control program is used to duplicate the effects of vehicle, transmission, and road on engine operation. Reference data and acquired data are exchanged over a high-speed communications channel between the minicom(DAC) system. puterand acentralizeddataacquisitioncomputer Data be can plotted against or time cross-plotted against other parameters on a graphic cathodbray-tube display peripheral to the minicomputer.The user can interactwiththesystemtochange parameters during the running of an experiment. INTRODUCTION

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has faced more severe challenges its to engineering capabilitiesthanithas faced inalltheyears of its existence. Withtheindustrysgreaterawareness of safety andenvironmental problems,theseburdensonengineering will continue to increase in the future. Traditional methods of design using data obtained from steady-state testing is no longer sufficient to solve many of todays problems. For example, exhaust emissions are highly Files dependent on transient changes of engine speed and torque. For effective design, this transient operation must be understood and reliable data must be available. An automobile is a difficult laboratory for taking large amounts of transient data on the many engine variables. Moreover, once a vehicle Fig. 1. System block diagram. (a) 1-Measured throttle; 2-reference is instrumented, the problems of accuracy and repeatability throttle. (b) 1-Measured speed; 2-reference speed. of the data remain.In general, control over experimental conditions can be quitedifficult when dealing with an automobile operation with or without a transmission; on a road with a human driver. capability of simulating engine subsystems; For these reasons a project was undertaken to develop a test parameters controlled by user; computer-controlledenginedynamometerfortransientenresults reported in graphic form; gineexperimentsusing a process-controlminicomputer and capability of making decisions on the results of a n experia n existing dynamometer. The facility combines the precise ment, changing parameters, and rerunning the experiment; control of experimental conditions possible in an engine test automatic data exchange with a centralized data acquisicell with the transient behavior of a vehicle on a road. tion computer (DAC) system. Some of the design objectives were the following:

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OR T H E PAST several years the automotive industry

adaptability to wide variety of standard and experimental a engines; adaptability to a wide variety of engine experiments; ability to run experiments in real time; closed-loop control of engine speed and torque; control of other engine parameters (spark advance, etc.) ; capability of following arbitrary reference signals; automatic logging of all engine variables (including exhaust emissions) ;
Manuscript received December 3, 1972; revised June 23, 1973. This work was a project of the Automotive Systems Group, Electronics and Instrumentation Department, General Motors Research Laboratories. The authors are with the Electronics and Instrumentation Department, General Motors Research Laboratories, Warren, Mich. 48090.

DESCRIPTION THE FACILITY OF A blockdiagram of the computer-controlled engine test cell is shown in Fig. 1. I t consists of the test cell proper, the control room containing the control minicomputer, and a remotelylocatedDAC used forbulkstorage of data. Fig. 2 shows the interior.of the test cell from the control room with a palletandthedynamometer.Thedynatheengineon mometer is a large electric motor capable of absorbing up to 500 hp from the engine or of supplying up to400 hp to drive the engine. I t h a s a solid-state controller giving ita n electromechanicaltimeconstant of 0.16 s , fastenoughformost transient engine experiments. The engine with all transducers and subsystems is mounted on a wheeled pallet with standardizedelectricalandutilityconnections.Thispermitsre-

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TEST CELL

1623

generalized input buffer 1 channel (16 b) ; generalized output buffer 1 channel (16 b). The analog and digital 1/0 are connected to the patch panel shown on the left side of Fig. 3. This patch panel connects to thetransducersinthetest cell andthesignal-conditioning electronics in the control room. The patch panel distributes the resources of the minicomputer to the signal lines being used for the current experiment. The graphic terminal can be used as a teletypewriter-like device for alphameric input and output, and it can used in be avectorgraphics modefor presenting data in theform of analog plots and labeled graphs. I t is interfaced to the minicomputerthrough a teletypewritercontrolleroperating at 100 characters/s. Because of the large volumeof data that is taken during a typical engine experiment, a bulk storage device is required. For reasons of economy it was decided to a nearby existing use DAC with four disk drives as a bulk storage satellite to the minicomputer. The DAC operates in a continuous real-time multitask mode and can supply remote computational support for the minicomputer when needed. An interrupt-driven parallel communications channel was established between the two computers using a generalized input buffer and generalized output buffer on the minicomputer, isolating line-receiver on the DAC. This permits the two drivers and digital 1/0 machines to exchange data at speeds exceeding 10 000 16-b words/s, giving the minicomputer rapid access to a large bulk storage pool.

Fig. 2.

Engine test cell and dynamometer control console.

motebuildup of experimentsandrapidinstallationinthe test cell. The exhaust-emissions analyzers, not visible in Fig. 2, measure the Federally required constituents of carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, and unburned hydrocarbons, aswell as oxygen and carbon dioxide. The engine can be instrumented to log data from up to 40 variables, among which are engine speed, engine torque, throttle angle, spark advance, manifold vacuum, exhaust temperature, and many other temperatures and pressures depending on the objectives of the particular experiment being conducted. The controlled variables include engine speed, engine GRAPHICS torque, throttle angle, advance, others spark and when necessary. One of the underlying goals of this computer-controlled The transducer signals connected the are to process- test cell system was that it should be an easily used tool for control computer in the control room throughsignal-condiengineering experiments. An engineer should be able to run a tioning electronics. These include filters, attenuators, straintest, examine the data, change one or more parameters, and gauge excitation units, stepping motor translators, and similar rerun the test. This is much more practical if the data can be devices. presented to the engineer in graphical form. A labeled graph The control minicomputer shown in Fig. 3 is the heart of can convey much more information in shorter time than can a the system. It controls the engine and dynamometer, directs apage of numbers.Forthisreason,thegraphicterminal, thedata logging operation,performsthefeedbackcontrol visible in Fig. 3, is an important part of the system. computations, and presents the results to the in graphical user Becauseboththegraphicsprogramsandthereal-time form. Additionally, it permits the to control the execution control programs are quite large, they cannot user be resident in of an experiment and transfers data over a high-speed link to the minicomputers core memory simultaneously. After one the remotely located DAC for storage and processing. A mini- phase of an experiment is run using the real-time control procomputer with a 16 000-word 16-b core memory and a 960-11s grams, the graphics programs are loaded into the minicombasic cycle time was chosen for the control computer. I t can puter. The operator, using the terminal keyboard, selects the of stan- data he wants to see plotted. These can be direct plots of any be programmed in assembly language and a subset dard Fortran IV. Peripheral equipment includes a Teletype, variable against time or crossplots of one variable against a 300-card/min card reader, and a storage cathode-ray-tube another. The graphics programs fetch the data from the bulk graphic terminal. storage disks of the DAC and plot it on scaled labeled graphs Process-controlcapability is providedbythefollowing in less than 5 s. Examples of these plots are shown in Fig. 4. devices housed in an auxiliary I/O enclosure: Once the experimenter has seen enough data to make a deanalog input 8 high-level channels (f5.1175 V) 16 low-level channels ( f200 mV) ; analog output 8 channels (+_5.1175 V); digital input 2 channels (16 b each) ; digital output 3 channels (16 b each); cision, he can load the real-time control programs back into core,changeparameters or reference inputs, and rerun the experiment. DATA ACQUISITION CONTROL AND The way in which a user interfaces with the data acquisition and control programs is of fundamental importance to the success of the computer-controlled engine testcell. A flexible system that canbe adapted to many different test require-

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, NOVEMBER

1973

Fig. 3.

Control minicomputer, graphic terminal, and patch panel.

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Reference and measured values of percentage of engine throttle opening and engine r/min versus time. Note that for all practical purposes the reference and measured values are coinadent.

ments is needed.A table-driven system was developed to meet this requirement. I n the minicomputer table-driven software system, execution of the real-time control and data acquisition programs is controlled by data stored in condensed specification tables. A fill-in-the-blank form and a translation program were developed to simplify the generation of these tables from test specifications. Once the forms are filled in by the user, com-

pletelycharacterizinghisexperiment,theyarekeypunched and used as data for the translation program on an I B M 370. This program checks the entries for consistency and produces a deck of punched cards which can be read directly into the for the minicomputer to produce specification the tables experiment. In filling out the form, the engineer includes specifications for:

RILLINGS et

al. : COMPUTER-CONTROLLED ENGINE

TEST CELL

1625

V HC E EIL S UAO I LTR M

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Fig. 5.

Functional block diagram of a n experiment to tune a control algorithm.

The following example illustrates theuse of this system to tuneanalgorithmforenginecontrol.Open-loopreference values for the two controlled parameters, engine speed and throttle angle, were obtainedfromanautomotive vehicle simulationprogram [2] whichcalculatesengineparameter values for a given input of vehicle description and road-speed profile. Forthis test the road-speed profile chosenwas the fifth cycle of a Federally specified driving schedule used for exhaust emissions testing. Fig. 4 shows that thiscycle consists of a n idle, a n acceleration with gear shifts from first to second Calculatedvariablesareanyquantitiesthatcanberepreto third, a cruise in third gear, and a deceleration to idle with sented algebraically as a combination of measured values and downshifts from third to second to first gear. Fig. 5 gives a constants, such as horsepower and air/fuel ratio. These can be functional block diagram of the steps used in this example. read directly by the user or logged as data. Controlled variBefore the test begins, engine speed and throttle reference ables use a proportional, integral. and differential algorithm values are stored in the DAC. During the test, the control that has checks on maximum deviation, maximum and miniminicomputer accesses these reference data via the communiis cation link, performs the feedback control calculations, and mum outputs, and maximum-integral contribution. There also provision for making the loop gain an arbitrary function controls the engine. The minicomputer alsologs the values of of other variables. Any measured or calculated variable can variousengineparametersandtransmitsthesedatatothe be logged on the Teletype, graphic terminal, or bulk storage DAC for storage along with the reference values. This process disks. As an aid in developing a control scheme, the operator is performed every 0.1 s. can also specify that control commands be logged. Arbitrary After the 75-5 cycle is complete, the graphics programs are reference following cycles for controlled variables can be exe- loaded into the minicomputer. The reference values and the cuted. The reference curves are represented as straight-line logged values of thecontrolparametersareplottedonthe segments of engineering values versus time. For example, a graphic terminal for inspection by the engineer. their agreeIf user can specify a ramp for engine speed with only two points.mentisnotadequate,theengineer uses theTeletypeto \Then a real-timetestisrun,thereferencedatacancome change parameter values in the control algorithm and reruns from the minicomputer card reader or from the bulk storage the test. Fig. 4 shows the final results of this process. This disk via the communications channel. figure shows two traces 1 and 2 of the measured and reference The data acquisition and control programs arebased on a values which appear to be superimposed on each other, showcommercial real-time executive package. The executive proing satisfactory test results. gramforthecomputer-controlledtest cell was configured This interaction between an engineer and the miniwith four programs executing on a priority basis. In order of computer-ngine system allows rapid selection of parameter decreasingpriority,theyarethereal-timesupervisoryprovalues and evaluationof results. gram, the reference data program, the data acquisition proCONCLUSIONS gram, and the operator interface program. The operator's inputs are made a t the lowest priority. The logging and referThe minicomputer as used in this facility offers a great ence programs are separate so that input and output operadeal of flexibility. I t performs real-time control and data actions can be overlapped. For example, data may be logged to quisition for a complex dynamic process, exchanges data with the graphic terminalwhile reference data are being read from a larger central computer, presents data in graphical form,

system timing measured variables: calibration curves measurement rates filtering calculated variables : equations controlled variables: control rates control algorithms logged variables: logging rates reference data.

the card reader. The supervisory program reads input variables and controls output variables during real-time tests. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE

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PROCEEDINGS OF TEE IEEE, VOL.

61, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 1973

and allowstheoperatortointerface with hisexperiment.theircontributionstotheminicomputer-to-DACcommunicaHaving a small powerful computer dedicated toa single appli- tions programs. cation makes facilities likethis practical. REFERENCES ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors Farrell, A. wish to thank J. Cassidy, V. Coppola, A. K o k c ~ , T r a b l da n d , L.
[l] J. F. Cassidy and J. H. Rillings, Transient engine testing by computercontrol,presented a t t h e SAE Nat.AutomobileMeeting, Detroit, May22,1972. Mich., 121 W. C. Walters, General purpose automotive vehicle performance and economy simulation, presented to the Society of Automotive Engineers, Jan. 10-14, 1972, Paper 720043.

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R. Chaney and G . Kimmfor

The Use of MinicomputersinRacetrackTotalisatorSystems

BURT H. LIEBOWITZ AND RICHARD S. WOLF

track may have from 100 to 600 ticket machines. There are 11 distinct types of betting pools used at AmTote tracks. 2) Thesystemmust be accurateandreliable.AmTote guaranteesthesystemtoitscustomers; i.e., AmTote will The coanprrters are duplexed.. Both eaanputers process every bet makegoodanyfinanciallosseswhichcan be attributed to and operator action Either computer can continue processing if the equipment failure. The system must not down because lost go other fails. The softwan provides extensive error checking of all hardware c m o o pn All bets are logged to magnetic tape, w i h time means lost money to track management. Also, horse and hc dog bettors are not the most patient people in the world, and canbe~tonst.rtthe~iacureofasystemblow. if Thereal-thaeprogramwasrrittminmachinelanguageanda are apt togive vent to their emotions in public they cannot speeiany developed higher level The master 6le contains place their bets in a timely fashion. 35 OOO hbadhs. A typical prymm may contain 20 OOO words of 3) The system must be easy to operate and troubleshoot. program and data tables. An d n program is used t generate indi- e h o 4) The system must be portable so that it can be moved vidual systems, trilond to the requkements of speci5c racetracks. from racetrack to racetrack, sometimes on an overnight basis. The average racing meet is two months in duration; a single I. INTRODUCTION tote system may be moved seven times in one year. HIS PAPER describes the new generation of computer5 ) The system must be compatiblewithexistingticket ized totalisators produced by the American Totalisator machines (with some allowable minor modifications) and disCompany (AmTote) for use at racetracks. The totalisaplay boards. tors are used t o issue tickets, compute odds, control betting, The preceding goals had to be satisfied in an economical display betting information, and calculate payouts on winning manner since many systems would be deployed in the field. entries. The choice of a minicomputer as the heart of the system The decision t o develop the new generationof Utotes was was a natural one. Minis are inexpensive, fast, reliable, and 1969. System design was heavily made by AmTote in July easy to interface with external devices. AmTote had several influenced by a prototype allelectronic system previously deyears of experience with the Varian 620 family. Studies indiveloped for theCharlestownandShenandoahracetracks. catedthatthe 620i wouldsatisfythereal-timeprocessing The production system approach and design was completed needs of even the largest racetracks; hence the Varian was by a team of AmTote and International Computing Company chosen as the central processor. The original goal was to fit (ICC) engineers. The systems are built by AmTote with softthe system in 20 000 words of core; however, increased reware assistance from ICC. The first system was installed at quirements coupled decreasing with computer costs have Laurel Racetrack in October 1970; more than 30 have been dictated that most totes will contain 32K computers. Some delivered since t h a t time. totes also utilize fixed-head disks as external storage. T h e design goalsof the new totes were as follows. 11. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION FUNCTIONS AND 1) The system must have the flexibility and capability to support any of AmTotes customers. These include harness The system block diagram is shown in Fig. 1. Pictures of tracks, dog tracks, and thoroughbred tracks. Handles range the finished system are shown in Figs. 2-5. 6 from 300 OOO dollars per day to OOO OOO dollars per day. The Thesystem uses a duplexconfigurationfor.reliability. number of runners per race varies between 8 and 12. A race- Betsareenteredviaticketmachines(indicatedas TM on Fig. 1). Bet information is stored in the bet interface, for input into both computers. The computers read and analyze Manusaipt d v e d March 14, 1973; reviaed June 7, 1973. B. H. Liebossitz is withthe International ComputingCompany, the bet to determine its validity. If the bet is valid, the apBetheada, Md. 20014. a valid 2-dollar bet R.S. Wolf is with the Amerign Totalisator Company, Towson, M d . propriate pool is updated. For example, on runner 3 in the win pool will result in an incrementation 21204.

AbstracA racetrack totalisator i desuibed w i h i capable s hc s of processing 300 bets/s from up to 1OOO ticket-issuing machines. w i h provide high-reliability hc The system contains l w c s comprtting p w r capable ofSDpPortfng the requirementsof o-at oe, any racetrackin the U i e States or ntd

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