Can software-defined vehicles never roll over: A perspective of active structural transformation

The revolution of physical structure is highly significant for future software defined vehicles (SDV). Active structural transformation is a promising feature of the next generation of vehicle physical structure. It can enhance the dynamic performance of vehicles, thus providing safer and more comfortable ride experiences, such as the ability to avoid rollover in critical situations. Based on the active structural transformation technology, this study proposes a novel approach to improve the dynamic performance of a vehicle. The first analytical motion model of a vehicle with active structural transformation capability is established. Then, a multi-objective optimization problem with the adjustable parameters as design variables is abstracted and solved with an innovative scenario specific optimization method. Simulation results under different driving scenarios revealed that the active transformable vehicle applying the proposed method could significantly improve the handling stability without sacrificing the ride comfort, compared with a conventional vehicle with a fixed structure. The proposed method pipeline is defined by the software and supported by the hardware. It fully embodies the characteristics of SDV, and inspires the improvement of multiple types of vehicle performance based on the concept of “being defined by software” and the revolution of the physical structure.