An innovative and safe active light weight design chassis suspension system - An enhanced development methodology

Abstract

Lightweight design is still very important for an all-electric vehicle especially when used in an urban area. Simple chassis systems for small urban vehicles covering the weight limitations often lack an acceptable drive comfort and driving stability in extreme situations. A new active chassis suspension designed for such an urban car is in development at the DLR Institute for Vehicle Concepts in the founded project Next Generation Car (NGC) Urban Modular Vehicle (UMV). This concept even provides active safety measurements regarding small overlap crash scenarios. Main components are a composite traverse leaf spring, an orbital wheel bearing optional with an integrated electrical drive and an innovative wheel independent two axis steering actuator changing the toe and camber angle. For the creation of this concept an existing development methodology is used, which is extended by a (partly) automated design and dimensioning process.