Automotive manufacturer Mazda has used MathWorks' Matlab, Simulink and Model-Based Calibration Toolbox in the development of its Skyactiv engine technology. Mazda engineers accelerated the generation and development of optimal calibration settings, ECU-embeddable models and engine models for hardware-in-the-loop simulation through the use of Simulink and Model-Based Calibration Toolbox. This design approach is reported to have cut embedded model complexity in half and also improved embedded model accuracy by 80 per cent.
‘Finding an optimal calibration setting in a search space of five or more dimensions is difficult even for experienced calibration engineers, so we could never be certain that we had found the best possible settings,’ said Shingo Harada, assistant manager at Mazda. ‘Model-Based Calibration Toolbox not only enabled us to identify optimal calibration settings for the Skyactiv-D engine, it greatly reduced the engineering effort required. The models it generated accelerated control logic development, provided valuable insights and made it easy to try new ideas.’
Skyactiv-D engines meet stringent European and Japanese emission standards and are installed in production vehicles starting with model year 2012, including the Mazda CX-5.
