In November 2022, Beijing Zhongsheng Xinneng Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Institute of Technology jointly launched Flowcar autonomous driving robot V1.0 version, which obtained a number of use cases during the year and successfully delivered to a number of well-known main automakers.

With the continuous development of the automobile industry, people have put forward higher and higher requirements for the performance of automobiles, which requires a large number of tests to improve the design level of automobiles. The traditional automobile performance test is done by manual driving. Manual test has many disadvantages such as poor economy, poor repeatability, high labor cost, and short uninterrupted DVSC-TT-14C-09
test period. There are relatively mature autonomous robot products in foreign countries, but the price is expensive, so it is necessary to design a domestic low-cost autonomous robot combined with intelligent robot technology and autonomous driving technology to assist in the performance test of the vehicle.

Flowcar robot has the advantages of lightweight structure, simple composition, easy installation, ability to adapt to different models, full independent research and development, high cost performance, can execute the relevant driving work according to the customer’s given instructions, complete the test task of starting, accelerating, braking, speed tracking in different test conditions, and can be developed according to the test needs. The experiment proves that the robot can replace the traditional manual driving test method, and complete the speed tracking test task under standard working conditions safely, accurately and efficiently.

Figure 1 – Installation appearance of the Flowcar DVSC-TT-14C-09 
autonomous driving robot

1. Main functions
• With manual control and automatic control of two working modes and steering options;
• Able to complete vehicle acceleration and deceleration performance test:
1. Be able to start and accelerate by controlling the accelerator pedal according to the given instructions;
2. Can realize the braking function by controlling the brake pedal according to the given instructions;
• Able to complete the durability test of various vehicle conditions;
1. Be able to accelerate/decelerate to the set cruising speed through the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal and keep the same speed for a long time;
2. Can read the speed curve of typical working conditions, including but not limited to NEDC, CLTC, WLTC, etc., accelerate/decelerate according to the given speed curve through the accelerator pedal and brake pedal;

• Able to complete data display and collection functions:
1. Real-time display of DVSC-TT-14C-09
accelerator pedal displacement, brake pedal displacement, set speed and actual speed values;
2. Can dynamically draw the speed change curve, electric cylinder displacement curve, pedal stress curve.
• The ability to set the target curve with one click and dynamically and randomly select the tracking start time.
• Can realize the device self-test function, display the current signal acquisition frequency of each sensor.
• Manual adjustment of electric cylinder displacement, manual control of gas pedal and brake pedal movement displacement.

2. Main technical indicators

2.1 Mechanical Parameters
• System mass: <30kg
• Installation size: <380mm*300mm*360mm

2.2 Working environment indicators
• Ambient temperature: -20℃ ~ +70℃;
• Relative humidity: 10% ~ 90%;
• Working voltage: 220VAC/50Hz;

2.3 Performance indicators of the pedal actuator
• Execution stroke: 0-200mm;
• Execution speed: 0.25m/s;
• Maximum execution: 500N;
• Positioning accuracy: 0.1mm;
• Measuring accuracy: 0.05mm;

2.4 Controlling Performance Indicators
• Speed tracking range: 0 ~ 180km/h;
• Speed tracking error: not more than ±2km/h;

3. System composition

The main task of the vehicle autonomous robot is to control the position of the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal in the test process to realize the test of the speed and other performance of the vehicle. It is mainly composed of a sensor system (speed acquisition card, force sensor, encoder), a control computer (software interface, control program), a drive system and an actuator (electric cylinder, connecting parts), and its composition is shown in Figure 2 below.