Safety, comfort ad the responsible use of natural resources are the focus of work in relation to road and rail vehicles, in which the research fields of energy management, driving dynamics and vehicle intelligence are addressed. In these fields in particular, the opportunities offered by electromobility are to be utilised and their establishment supported by research. The development of modular, mechatronically highly integrated chassis and drives benefits from a holistic approach based on vehicle concepts. In the Next Generation Car and Next Generation Train projects, these serve as a DLR-wide framework for coordinated concept, method and technology development.
Road vehicles
Road vehicles - vehicle system dynamics and control engineering
The institute develops a variety of innovative approaches for mechatronic X-by-Wire chassis, which aim to simultaneously improve energy efficiency, driving safety and comfort. Key fields of research are the development of model- and cognition-based control systems with a focus on motion planning, vehicle dynamics and chassis control, vehicle state estimation, model-predictive overall vehicle control as well as active and semi-active chassis control, together with other core topics of electromobility. The latter include energy management, battery control and battery state estimation.
Automated driving and electromobility are two of the key technologies for the future of road transport. Automated driving offers the potential to reduce accidents caused by human error and to improve traffic flow, energy efficiency and driver comfort.
Rail vehicles
Rail vehicles - vehicle system dynamics and control engineering
Rail transport must become more attractive and significantly improve its offering in the competition for passengers and freight. A significantly higher share of rail in the further increase in transport volumes will make a major contribution to the decarbonisation of transport.
