Benchmarking stands as a conventional practice in the automotive industry, serving as a vital tool for OEMs to discern how their products measure up against competitors and to gain critical insights on market dynamics. Traditionally, the evaluation of vehicles leaned heavily on the mechanical aspects, but with the increasing software dependence of vehicles, the electronic and electrical (E/E) systems too have become important while benchmarking.
This, however, poses a different set of challenges for the OEM. Achieving a meaningful comparison requires the meticulous evaluation of two vehicles under identical test conditions—a process known for its inherent time-consuming and labor-intensive nature. Adding to the complexity, contemporary software platforms frequently lack dedicated benchmarking capabilities. This makes it difficult for test engineers to effectively analyze the performance of their proto. Vehicles against benchmarking vehicles.
DriveTech’s in-house data analytics platform, StellarAi provides an integrated ‘Compare’ feature that addresses the above challenges. This feature serves as a catalyst for engineers, enabling them to conduct efficient comparisons of parameters between the prototype vehicle and its corresponding benchmarks.
Users benefit from the ability to overlay and slide parameter curves, effectively eliminating irrelevant data and facilitating the simultaneous comparison of multiple parameter sets. Further, StellarAi is the only platform that allows Users to merge and compare data from multiple test files for both the proto vehicle and benchmark vehicle(s). Users can choose to visualize parameters with either a pair of single ‘Multiple Y-axis' plots or multiple pairs of ‘Single Y-axis' plots. An additional noteworthy capability of StellarAi is its capacity to accommodate the comparison of data from up to four vehicles concurrently.
The above functionality, combined with its standard automation capabilities, makes StellarAi the most suitable platform for analysis of benchmarking data. Its ‘Merge & Plot’ functionality allows for huge datasets to be combined and compared; whereas the ‘Automation’ feature helps users auto-generate comparison visualization from live tests.
Example Use case: Let's take the case of two vehicles equipped with IVN Data Loggers, being driven in an identical manner on a test track or on a dyno, for a duration of 12 hours. The Data Loggers would generate multiple files as they capture the vehicle performance. These data files can be fetched by StellarAi while the test is progress and used to automatically generate a pseudo-real-time comparison between the two vehicles.
The significance of the 'Compare' feature lies in its ability to facilitate an apples-to-apples comparison of vehicles, with due consideration the prevailing test conditions. This streamlined benchmarking process not only translates to significant time savings but also helps in significantly enhancing the accuracy of the analysis.
In conclusion, DriveTech's StellarAi not only effectively addresses the pre-existing challenges in benchmarking electronic systems but also serves to streamline the entire process. This not only translates to a considerable saving of time but, more importantly, it elevates the precision and robustness of performance analysis. The innovative 'Compare' feature emerges as a beacon in simplifying benchmarking analysis. With its user-friendly interface and efficiency-driven design, StellarAi establishes itself as a pivotal tool that promises to propel OEMs toward sustained success and advancement in this dynamic sector.
