Chapter 7.
Microcontroller Implementation
Consideration
The overall performance of wheel slip control systems have been limited
in the past primarily by the unavailability of low cost, flexible, high-speed
electronic technology. The application of high speed digital microcontrollers in
anti-lock brake systems allows increased computational capabilities and
control performance. In this section, a Motorola 68HC11 microcontroller is
evaluated for its suitability for the anti-lock brake control application. This family
of microcontroller have been used in FLASH lab, Virginia Tech Center for
Transportation Research for evaluation of the automatic highway system
concepts and technologies (Kachroo, 1995). Due to the unavailability of the
small-size electromagnetic brakes, we have not implemented the
electromagnetic brakes and its control system on the small-scale vehicle in
FLASH lab. But the digital control algorithm of the possible ABS system is
evaluated and features of 68HC11 and alternative families of microcontrollers
are evaluated to estimate their suitability for ABS application.
For regular friction brakes, modulated brake torque can be calculated
and applied to every individual wheel because there is a possibility that
different wheels are on different road surfaces. On the other hand, due to the
location of electromagnetic brakes, its output torque must be applied to all four
wheels in an overall base. The anti-lock brake system discussed in this
section takes both situations into consideration.
66
7.1. Motorola 68HC11 Microcontroller (Motorola, 1991)
The high-density complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (HCMOS)
68HC11 is an advanced 8-bit microcontroller with sophisticated on-chip
peripheral capabilities. The HCMOS technology combines smaller size and
higher speeds with the lower power and high noise immunity of CMOS. There
are plenty of peripheral functions provided on chip. There is an eight-channel
analog-to-digital (A/D) converter included with eight bits of resolution. An
asynchronous serial communications interface (SCI) and a synchronous serial
peripheral interface (SPI) are also included. The 16-bit free-running timer
system has three input-capture lines, five output-compare lines, and a real-
time interrupt function. An 8-bit pulse accumulator subsystem can count
external events and measure external periods. All these features allow
interfacing to various sensors and actuators. Communication with other on-
board computer systems, and additional wheel slip control functions (e.g.
traction control) are also possible.
Two software-controlled power-saving modes, WAIT and STOP, are
available to conserve additional power. These modes make the 68HC11
attractive for automotive application. A 68HC11 controlled small-scale vehicle
was constructed in the FLASH lab, Virginia Tech Center for Transportation
Research for evaluation of the automatic highway system concepts and
technologies (Kachroo,1995).
7.2. Evaluation of the Motorola 68HC11 microcontroller designs for wheel
slip feedback control systems
67
Many issues needed to be evaluated regarding the suitability and
performance of the microcontroller in wheel slip feedback control system.
Three major issues are:
1. I/O requirement
- four wheel slip speed inputs (sensor inputs)
- multiple solenoid driver/outputs
- additional digital I/O ports for expandability
- serial communication for diagnostics
- watchdog timer
2. CPU and instruction set flexibility
- Real time computational capability
- amount of available RAM
- high level instruction set for shorter software develop time
3. Expandability and adaptability to other wheel slip control applications
such as traction control.
7.2.1. I/O requirement
The Motorola 68HC11A8 has only three input-capture lines, so it
requires extra additional hardware to handle four wheel speed sensors.
Among the 68HC11 family of microcontrollers, the 68HC11E9 uses pin PA3 as
either output or input. By configuring the PA3 as an input capture pin, it fulfills
the requirement of 4 input-capture lines. The sensors on the wheels generate
an analog signal the frequency of which is proportional to the equivalent wheel
transitional speed (Spasov, 1993). The input capture function is able to
measure the frequency by recording the times when falling edges or rising
edges occur. The software then calculates the period by calculating time
difference between two consecutive edges. Based on this information,
software can determine the actual wheel speed.
68
Vehicle speed can be measured by different methods in ABS system
today. One approach is to make use of the Doppler principle. Another
approach is to use the propeller shaft sensor that senses the mean rotational
speed of rear and front wheels (this method does not work when the wheel is
locked). The use of magnetic markers for vehicle speed detection is also a
feasible method. None of these ABS methods of measuring the vehicle speed
is perfect; an analytical observer may provide a better system performance and
act as a backup system during sensor failure (e.g. the failure of the magnetic
marker system) (Unsal, 1996).
Altogether the 68HC11 can have 40 output pins which can be used to
drive the solenoids or other possible driver/switch units. It should be able to
handle the requirements of the application. Manual control of the
elctromagnetic brakes would need only four solenoids to increase the braking
power in 4 consecutive stages (see Chapter 2). New control switches,
solenoid contactors and more groups of coil circuits can be designed to fulfill a
much more precise control of brake power.
For the future I/O expansion, the 68HC11 has enough output ports for
extra application demand, but not enough input ports. That would require a
dual processor or off-chip circuitry. But additional circuitry would add hardware
complexity and degrade the calculation resolution by introducing interference.
Usually in automobile applications, multiple processors are used. Every
processor controls a different system, such as ABS, instrument panel and
engine control. Different controllers can communicate with one another using
communication ports. The 68HC11 has a double buffer serial communication
interface (SCI) which can be configured to select the baud rate of the
communication, communication word length, enable/disable interrupts,
transmit, and receive as required. Both SCI and SPI (synchronous serial
input/output) can be used for diagnostics and monitoring purposes.
69
The 68HC11 has watchdog timer system which is intended to detect
software processing errors by keeping a free-running watchdog timer from
timing out. If the watchdog timer times out, it is an indication that the software
is no longer being executed in the intended sequence. Caution would be given
and appropriate action could be activated, such as to initiate a system reset or
activating backup units.
7.2.2. CPU and instruction set flexibility
The digital algorithm design is limited in control ability by the architecture
and instruction set of the microcontroller used. In this section, we consider the
suitability of the architecture and instruction set of Motorola 68HC11.
The fastest rate of system clock of the 68HC11 family is 2MHz. A
programmable prescaler allows the user to select one of four clock rates. The
default fastest rate is 500 ns per cycle. For the system simulated in Chapter 5
which has satisfactory performance, the time between every integration step is
1 ms. That means that we can have 2000 clock cycles between every time step
to fulfill the computational requirement. The calculation requirements for the
controlled brake torque calculation are listed in Table 7.1.:
Table 7.1. Computational Requirement for controlled brake torque calculation.
Memory/operations Numbers of using Maximum Clock Cycles
Requirements memory/operation every operation
Variables/Parameters 17 N/A
Addition/Subtraction 35 7
Production 50 10
Division 14 41
Square Root 2 10
70
Absolute Value 2 3
Sign function 1 3
Comparison (if-else 1 3
loop)
The maximum clock cycles needed to fulfill the control torque calculation (see
Appendix line 35-57) is:
(35 × 7) + (50 × 10) + (14 × 41) + (2 × 10) + (2 × 3) + (1 × 3) + (1 × 3) = 1351 clock cycles. So
the 68HC11 has sufficient real-time computational capability for our
application. On the other hand, it does not leave enough capability for us to
implement analytical observers (state estimators) that may improve the system
performance by giving more precise vehicle velocity and wheel slip values
(Unsal, 1996). So it is recommended that the possible observer
implementation be done on a separate microcontroller and the results be sent
to the brake torque calculation microcontroller for further calculation.
There are 256 bytes of RAM and 512 bytes of EEPROM available on the
68HC11. This should be sufficient for the application. If not, off-board RAM with
an address/data decoder can be used. But the off-board RAM will result in
longer access time and complex hardware.
Software design and development time for the Motorola 68HC11 is
regarded as short, due to its popularity in the automobile industry and its
efficient instruction set and I/O architecture.
7.2.3. Expandability and adaptability to other wheel slip control applications
The possible expansion of the system for other applications such as
traction control is considered here. One possible bottleneck is the limited
number of input ports available. Dual processor or off-chip circuitry solutions
71
could degrade the calculation accuracy of the system and make it less cost-
effective. So it is recommended that the amount of inter-processor
communication should be kept as less as possible. Algorithms of different
modules could be designed to work as independently as possible.
7.3. Algorithm Design Consideration
This section outlines the software algorithm issues associated with the
control loop of the system. The flow diagram is shown in Figure 7.1. The
description of the major modules are as follows:
RESET: After power-up or initialization by the watchdog timer system, the RAM
is cleared, the stack pointer is initialized, and the I/O ports and registers are
configured by setting/resetting relevant bits. The internal watchdog timer is
initiated, and interrupts are enabled.
START: Various wheel slip control software modules and subroutines are
initialized, control flags are reset, and addresses and parameters are
configured.
FAILSAFE: This module detects system failure and initiates a system shutdown
and driver warning mechanism.
MODE SELECT: This module determines if anti-lock action should be allowed
based on the failure status and/or low vehicle speed cut-off considerations.
The module should have vehicle velocity, wheel speed and system failure
status as inputs.
ANTI-LOCK MODE OFF: This module should shut down the modulator
dependent on system failure status (system failure mode or normal system
condition).
72
ANTI-LOCK MODE ON: This module activates the anti-lock brake system. For
regular brakes, the module should treat each wheel sequentially, while this is
not necessary for electromagnetic brakes. Three major subroutines should be
included in this critical module:
1. Wheel speed and deceleration calculation
The sensors on the wheels generate an analog signal with frequency
proportional to the wheel rotational speed. The input capture ports on the
microprocessor can capture the value of the free-running timer on every
transition of the sensor signal pulse. In that way, wheel speed can be
obtained. By combining both past and present speed values, the wheel
deceleration can be calculated.
2. Control output calculation
In this subroutine, wheel characteristics obtained from the above subroutine
are used to calculate the appropriate control command to adjust the brake
pressure modulator (for regular friction brakes) and exciting current modulator
(for electromagnetic brakes).
3. Action on modulator
The calculated results are used in this module to activate the pressure
modulator solenoid valves. The output commands of the valves for regular
friction brakes can be as follows:
- “Off”: the vehicle and the wheels are not in anti-lock brake mode
- “Hold”: the pressure is neither increasing nor decreasing
- “Decay”: the pressure is decreasing
- “Build”: the pressure is increasing
The output commands of the solenoids for electromagnetic brakes can be as
follows:
73
- “Off”: the vehicle and the wheels are not in anti-lock brake mode
- “Turn on”: the solenoid connector controlling a specific group of exciting
coils turns on to increase the braking torque (power)
- “Turn off”: the solenoid connector controlling a specific group of exciting
coils turns off to decrease the braking torque (power)
VEHICLE CALCULATION: If the vehicle speed is detected by sensor
technologies (e.g. Doppler effect devices or magnetic markers), this module
can be simplified. Otherwise, the vehicle velocity is calculated from the four
wheel speeds. If the vehicle is in acceleration, the lowest of all wheel speeds
is used for calculating the vehicle velocity. If the vehicle is in deceleration or if
the anti-lock brake system is activated, then the highest of all wheel speeds is
used for the vehicle velocity calculation. This variable is referred to as vehicle
“raw” speed. The actual speed can be calculated by combining the “raw”
speed and knowledge of speed at the previous scan time (Kalman filter can be
used as an estimator here). The vehicle deceleration is calculated based on
the slope of the vehicle speed. The above information is then used to
determine overall wheel slip and road friction coefficient.
STORAGE: At the end of the loop, various parameters like wheel speeds,
acceleration or deceleration of the wheels, vehicle velocity, etc; are stored in
RAM for future reference.
7.4 Alternative microcontrollers
There is a wide variety of microcontrollers available on the market,
ranging from 8-bit to 16-bit CPU’s, and an assortment of on-board peripherals
with differing architectures and instruction sets. In this section, Motorola
68HC12 (16-bit CPU processor) and MCS 296 (16-bit CPU processor) are
compared with 68HC11 to show alternative (and better) candidate for ABS
system (see comparison chart on Table 7.1).
74
MCS 296 can be operated in 50mhz which gives much higher
performance than 68HC11. MCS 296 is an ideal candidate for real time
feedback control application based on its pipelined architecture and 40-bit
accumulator. There are 512 bytes register Ram which make fast data
manipulation possible and save a great deal of time. The MCS 296 is
complemented by a complete set of hradware and software developed by third
party development tool vendors. Compared with 68HC11, MCS 296 has better
processing speed, better high-speed I/O subsystem and more I/O driver pins.
The Motorola 68HC12 is migrated from 68HC11 and all 68HC11 codes
are compatible on 68HC12 processors. The 68HC12 adds features like on-
board Flash EEPROM, 64 new instructions, 20-bit ALU, instruction queue,
larger program and data space on the ALU, faster math capabilities to support
real-time requirement. Another feature of the 68HC12 is that it supports the
modular design methodology, enabling the CPU to connect to existing, proven
Motorola peripheral modules.
All these new generations of 16-bit microcontrollers have better
performance over Motorola 68HC11 because of their real-time processing
speed capability, larger memory space and better I/O subsystem.
Table 7.1. Comparison chart for different microcontrollers.
Considerations MCS 296 (Intel) 68HC11 68HC12
(Motorola) (Motorola)
Multiple solenoid 48 40 40
drivers
Watchdog timer Available Available Available
Powerdown RAM, Powerdown RAM EEPROM Powerdown RAM
EEPROM OTPROM Powerdown RAM EEPROM/FLASH
75
EEPROM
Serial Available Available Available
Communication
Real-time Very high High Very high
computational (40 bit (16 bit (20 bit
capability accumulator) accumulator) accumulator)
(232 registers)
CPU architecture Very high High Very High
for real-time I/O (specific high-
speed I/O
subsystem)
Available RAM 2K 256 1-4K
EEPROM/OTPRO Available Not Available Available
M (Flash EEPROM)
System clock rate 50MHz 2MHz 8MHz
Software design Available Available Available
and development
For serial communication networks in vehicles, the controller area
network, or CAN, protocol is usually used. The CAN specification addresses
the lowest two layers of the ISO’s Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) Reference
model for communication protocals, the data link layer and the physical layer.
Motorola HC05 chips are used to support the CAN devices (such as built-in
CANBus Interface). That makes HC05 a candidate for our application for its
compatiability with the CAN bus devices.
7.5. Summary and Conclusions
The software structure and algorithms for wheel slip control system
design are described in this chapter. Motorola 68HC11 microcontroller is
76
evaluated to be sufficient for this application based on its architecture,
instruction set, available on-board RAM, I/O pins, watchdog timer,
communication and A/D conversion capabilities. New families of 16-bit
microcontroller such as Motorola 68HC12 and MCS 296 could be a better
candidate for ABS system because they have better speed and accuracy
performance.
77
Figure 7.1. Flow Diagram of the Sofytware Structure for ABS System
78